What If
by Meridian1
Summary: Basically, I changed one event in the movie to wor


Disclaimer: I don't own anyone mentioned here. They all belong to the Wachowski brothers, as far as I know. I'm not making any money off of this, so please don't sue. Think of the children!!!

*****_Italics_ ***** denotes a memory/dream

_Italics_ denotes character thought

  
**PART 1: The Haunting**

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_*****"If Morpheus was right, then there's no way I can pull this plug. I mean if Neo's the One, then there'd have to be some kind of a miracle to stop me, right? I mean how can he be the One if he's dead? You never did answer me, whether you bought into Morpheus' bullshit. Come on, all I want is a little 'yes' or 'no'. Look into his eyes, those big pretty eyes, and tell me: 'yes' or 'no'." _

_"Yes." _

_"Wrong answer." *****_

Thalia Reagan sat straight up in bed. The nightmare that had plagued her for months was bugging her again. She looked over at her husband. He was still fast asleep. She should have known he would be since her abrupt motions had failed to wake him as they had her, night after night. Rubbing her neck, Thalia got out of bed and walked over to the bathroom. Dousing water on her face had become a nightly ritual ever since the nightmare started. 

_When did it start?_ Thalia could hardly remember life without her nightly terror; if she were superstitious, she would have said it was some kind of omen. It was the same dream, never any different. She was standing in a run-down store of some kind and there was always another man with her. He was tall, pale, a little bit dusty, and gorgeous to boot. He looked at her with apprehension while she talked on a cell phone. She talked only to the man on the phone, but her eyes were riveted to the man in the store with her. Every time, she answered the question 'yes,' even though she knew the consequences. The man on the other end of the phone would say, "Wrong answer" and then...she shuddered at the memory.

The man in the room with her would fall to the floor. His eyes would roll back into his head and his knees would buckle from underneath him. She could not fathom what had happened; she only knew he was dead. How he died was the part of the nightmare that haunted and puzzled her long after she woke, sweating and shivering. 

"Thalia? Come back to bed," Lloyd called. So she _had _woken him. She switched off the bathroom light and left, drying her face with a towel. Before she could cross the ten feet to the edge of the bed, Lloyd was asleep. Sitting down on the end of the bed, Thalia looked at her husband, her jaw agape. He had never woken up before after she had had the nightmare, which explained why she had never realized... 

It was his voice on the other end of the cell phone. 

***********************************************************************

"Congratulations, Lloyd! The movie is a hit!" _Sammy, _Thalia thought with a grin. Sam Viking was the only agent that Thalia had ever known whose clients' success excited him as much as it did them. 

"Sorry, Sammy, he's not here." 

"Thal? Oh, jeez, sorry. Well, I guess I can celebrate with you, too, right?" 

"Absolutely! How's about you come on over for dinner, let's say tomorrow night around eight?" 

"I'll be there with bells on. See ya, toots." Thalia smiled as she hung up the phone. Show business might be filled with phonies, but Sammy was not one of them. Lloyd was lucky to have him for an agent. Sighing contentedly, she left a note for Rose, the cook, about dinner. Thalia left another note on the fridge for Lloyd, mentioning the dinner plans and that she was going out for a jog. Grabbing her water bottle and headphone radio, she was out the door a minute later. 

Her usual route took about a half an hour to complete, but today she felt no impetus to hurry. She jogged a few leisurely laps around the park and then strolled along, ambling through the city. Thalia drained her water earlier than usual due to the extreme heat. She needed to stop and refill her water bottle. A cyber café looked appealing, so she stopped to pick up a snack and some more water. Waiting in line, Thalia tapped her foot to the beat of the song on her radio. It was Garbage's "I Think I'm Paranoid", one of her favorite songs. Another customer in line laughed at her lip-synching to which Thalia rewarded him with a smile. She turned back to the counter to pick up her muffin. As she did, something caught her attention from the corner of her eye. Her double take was almost cartoonish. 

Sitting at one of the booths was the man from her dream. 

_I think I'm paranoid…_

***********************************************************************

"Ma'am? Are you okay?" Some one was calling to her. She didn't recognize the voice, but she tried to swim through the blackness to reach the owner of the voice. "She's coming around. Okay, okay, take it easy. Don't try to sit up too quickly, okay?" It was the clerk talking. One of the other customers was helping her sit up to her elbows. 

"I'm okay, really. I'm so sorry about this," Thalia managed to whisper. Her head was swimming. It felt like no oxygen was getting to her brain. Had she really seen...him? Was it even possible? If he was real, then was the dream real?_ No,_ she tried to tell herself; _no it doesn't mean anything. It was Lloyd's voice on the phone, and that's just a coincidence, right?_ _Maybe I've seen this person before..._

"It's alright ma'am. Let me help you up. Would you like us to telephone someone for you? Or would you rather we call the paramedics?" The clerk was doing his level best to keep Thalia responding, and she silently thanked him for it. If she didn't have to respond, she might easily collapse again. 

"Could you call my husband, please? The number..." she mumbled as she pulled out her husband's cell phone number. 

"Sure thing, here just keep drinking this," the clerk shoved some water under her nose. Thalia gulped it down, and someone took the cup from her to refill it. She heard the clerk talking excitedly to her husband. If he knew who her husband was, he would soon forget all about her fainting spell. _Just as well, I suppose. Better than him being overly concerned._ Thalia cursed herself for being so weak, especially now that she had revived to discover the man responsible gone. 

"I'm terribly sorry about this. I think I'm okay now, just a little heat problem." Thalia explained to the sympathetic customers around her. The clerk hung up the phone and returned. 

"Well, you're in luck, ma'am, seems your husband is in the area, on his way home or something. He'll be here to pick you up shortly, but until then, just keep drinking some water and don't move around too much, okay?" Thalia nodded. She gulped at the water, but she wasn't really thirsty. Only she knew why she had really passed out and how little it had had to do with heat exhaustion. She had only to keep the façade going until Lloyd showed up. She closed her eyes and leaned back against her chair. 

"Thalia? Oh Jesus!" _That has to be Lloyd_, she thought and opened her eyes to see her husband's concerned face staring right into hers. He wrapped her in a fierce hug that she weakly returned. Upon his entrance, everyone had completely forgotten all about Thalia, as she had known they would. Who cared about some lady who passed out because of exhaustion when Lloyd Reagan, superstar, was in the café? 

"Let's just go home, Lloyd, please?" Thalia got to her feet much more steadily than anyone as weak as she had pretended to be should have. At that point, had anyone been paying attention to her any more, they might have pointed out that she had been faking her problems a bit. Fortunately, no one noticed. 

"Thank you so very much," Lloyd shook the clerk's hands. Thalia said a breathless 'thank you' before Lloyd rushed her into the limousine. Depositing her in the back seat, he kissed her once. "I should go thank them again, love. Be right back, okay?" Thalia nodded; she knew what such a display of gratitude entailed. Lloyd would thank them by giving out a combination of autographs and false promises. She hated when he acted like just another Hollywood phony, but she resigned herself to it. She leaned against the seat and looked out the other window. 

Across the street, standing on the island between the two sides of traffic, was the man from her dream. Thalia swallowed down the urge to faint again. Instead, she rolled down the window and stared at the man, her intense gaze absorbing every detail and cross-checking it with the picture from her dream. Not only did the two men look alike, they were dressed exactly the same. The man on the island was wearing the same black suit with a black shirt and without a tie. His face was clean, and he looked upon her with a wistful longing rather than fear; he appeared sad, not afraid. 

Thalia opened the car door. Ignoring the honks of cabs and other drivers, she walked straight across the lanes to the island. If she did not approach him now, he might disappear, and she would never know why she knew him. He watched her come over with a faint smile on his lips. Thalia felt her heart leap in her chest. Only Lloyd had ever made her heart swoon like that. 

"I'm glad you finally came to see me." His voice was low and whispered. Thalia had never heard it before, but it seemed so familiar. She was certain that if the man in her dream had ever spoken, he would have sounded like that. 

"Who are you? Why should I know you?" Thalia's head was swimming again. Her emotions were posing a serious threat to her sanity. 

"_You_ don't know me, but Trinity does." Trinity? That name sounded so _right_. Familiar, yes, but right too. Thalia shook her head, trying to clear it and looked down. He had only answered one of her questions. 

"Who are you?" _Lloyd?_ Thalia turned at his voice. Sure enough, there he was, right behind her, one arm about to encircle her waist. Thalia looked up sharply to make sure the other man was still there. If he had disappeared again... 

He was still there, but something was wrong. His face was twisted with a scowl, and an even angrier emotion boiled behind his eyes. What had enraged him so? Thalia could not guess. He had been serene and even amused until Lloyd had shown up. Thalia glanced between him and Lloyd. Lloyd appeared stricken, as if bitten. He stared at the other man in wonder. _Like he recognizes him_, Thalia thought. 

"No one. Glad you're alright, ma'am," and with that, he was gone. He took off at an almost impossible speed. He looked back only once. When he did, the look of urgency in his handsome features burned Thalia's heart like acid. The man seemed desperate, sad, lonely, and utterly disappointed. Lloyd walked her back across the street to the limousine. Thalia looked away from the disappearing man for a split second to open the door. 

When she looked back, he was gone. 

***********************************************************************

"Dinner with Sammy, huh? Well, if Rose is up to it, I am." Lloyd pulled Thalia's note off the fridge. He poured her some more water and brought it to where she sat on the couch. "You're okay now, right?" 

"I'm fine, Lloyd. It wasn't nearly as bad as it looked, I'm sure." Thalia took the glass without moving her gaze from the window. If she concentrated hard enough, she could almost see the man's reflection in the window. Sighing, she sipped at her water. She had not even asked for his name. 

"Who was that you were talking to, by the way?" Thalia rolled her eyes when Lloyd's back was turned. He could be such a possessive creep at times. 

"I didn't get his name." 

"Why were you talking to him anyway? Why'd you get out of the car?" _Lie,_ Thalia told herself, _don't tell him the truth, he'll flip out. _

"I had a cramp, so I tried to walk it off. He asked me if I was okay, that's all. He was just being considerate."

"You had a cramp, so you walked across traffic? Why not just pace the sidewalk?" Lloyd walked into her field of view, forcing her to look at him. "Tell me who he is, Thalia. I know you know something you're not saying. If you've got something to tell me, you had better say it." 

"Why are you so upset? He's no one I know! I told you that! And I don't like you accusing me of things like that!" Thalia had jumped up. Her patience had vaporized. 

"I wasn't accusing you of anything..." Lloyd tried to calm her down. 

"Yes you were! I hate it when you _imply_ things like that!" Lloyd threw up his hands in defeat and stalked off to the den, slamming the door behind him. Thalia went the opposite direction towards the bedroom. She stood in the door frame for a minute, surveying the room before entering; the bed against the wall, the door to the bathroom ajar, the computer on the desk next to the dresser. The computer. Thalia crossed over to it. She started it up and slumped into the desk chair. The StartWindows music greeted her, and the desktop loaded as usual. 

She had just reached for the mouse to connect to the internet when the screen melted away to a black background. A green cursor blinked on and off in the upper left corner. 

[Hello.] 

One word on the screen. Thalia glanced all around cautiously for no apparent reason. She felt like she was doing something wrong, not to mention something suspicious should Lloyd see it. She typed her response. 

[Who is this?] 

[You know the answer already.] 

It was him. It had to be. 

[I don't know your name. Who are you? What's your name?] 

[Listen to me, I don't have a lot of time to waste. You have to be Trinity again. I need your help.] 

_Trinity. That name again_. It stuck at the back of her mind like it was an old nickname from camp. This was crazy. She should report this guy as a stalker, but for some reason she trusted him. She even wanted to _help_ him. That desire struck her as most peculiar of all, especially given his bizarre demand. _I have to __be__ Trinity? What does that mean?_

[What do you mean? How can I be someone else? What can I do?] 

[You have to learn everything all over again, everything they took away from you...everything you don't remember.] 

[What are you talking about?] 

[Go online, it'll come to you. They took it away so you'd forget who you are. When you sign on, you'll know what to do. You won't know how you know, but you just will.] 

Thalia read the message wide-eyed. _What does he mean?_

[Where do I start?] 

[At the beginning.] 

He sounded like he was going to leave again. She wanted to know more, and she could never learn anything from him if he left again. 

[Don't go yet.] 

[I have to. I'm putting you in danger if I stay.] 

[Please, just tell me who you are.] 

A long pause. Thalia counted the blinks of the cursor while she anticipated the answer. 

[My name is Neo.] 

***********************************************************************

**PART 2: The Memory Remains**

***********************************************************************

Thalia stared at the screen as the words disappeared. 

_Neo. His name is Neo._

"Déjà vu," she whispered. Closing her eyes, she willed the dream to play behind her closed eyelids. When the man on the phone spoke to her, what did he say? 

_"...I mean if Neo's the One..." _

The voice on the phone belonged to her husband; he had said "Neo". _Does that mean Lloyd was in on this?_ Thalia shook the thought from her mind. She and Lloyd had enough marital stress without her suspecting him of tampering with her dreams. Yet Lloyd had recognized Neo, she knew he had. Maybe he had no idea where they had met, but she had detected the same recognition in Lloyd as she had in herself.

Thalia ran on autopilot for the next three hours, doing exactly what Neo had told her to do. She surfed the internet, stopping here and there to read up on the latest news bulletins, government regulations regarding computer crimes, anything that caught her attention. She popped in and out of chat rooms, message boards, and personal pages. Neo had been right after all. Once she had gotten started, she knew exactly what to do. 

There was no question of thinking; she acted, following some gut instinct. _That's crazy,_ she chided herself, _how can anyone have instinctive knowledge about computers?_ Yet nonetheless, Thalia did; it all made sense. Soon, she abandoned common pages and began to cruise around among the actual hackers. She happened upon one board only to receive a hostile reception by a paranoid host. 

[Who are you?] 

_What should I say? My name is Thalia?_ Did it matter what she said? Her 'instinct' said that it did. Without another thought, she typed her response. 

[Trinity.] 

[You're shitting me. The Trinity? I thought he was dead.] 

[She is quite alive, thank you.] 

Thalia could not shake the cryptic feeling of déjà vu. She could vaguely recall someone else mistaking her for a man, but the exact memory remained intangible. 

[Sorry, I assumed you were a guy.] 

Without a moment's pause, Thalia punched in her response. 

[Most guys do.] 

Thalia's hands were shaking. _Déjà vu, again and again._ _Am I completely crazy or what?_ She was trying to still her hands when another joined the board. 

[Good, you remembered.] 

_Neo?_ Thalia's heart stopped beating. How could she possibly know who it was? 

[Who the hell are you, buddy? Why don't you get lost? The lady and I were talking.] 

[I told you, didn't I, Trinity? You can do it. Keep it up.] 

[Neo, don't leave!] 

[I'll find you again, I promise.] 

He was gone again, departing with as little fanfare as he had arrived. Thalia left, too, and switched off the computer moments before Lloyd entered the bedroom.

"Thal, I'm sorry I was such a jerk." He plodded over to her as she swiveled to face him. He took her hands into his and stroked her cheek. "I love you, baby, and I trust you. Forgive me?" 

"Of course," she hugged him, and he kissed her. They went to bed after a bit of diffident lovemaking. Lloyd fell asleep right away as did Thalia. She was not tired, but she feared what her dreams might reveal. She fell asleep anyway. 

_*****A dark door was in front of her. There was a wheel in the middle of the door, like the latch of a door on some sort of boat or submarine. She could see her hand on the wheel, opening the door. In her other hand, a tray with some utensils on it. She entered a dark room. With the faint light, she could just make out the figure of a man collapsed on a dirty mattress. Even before she saw his face, she knew exactly who it was. His hair was different, nearly all shaved off. She crept closer and stopped right at his head. He was asleep. She bent to place the tray near him, but her eyes were riveted to his face. He was beautiful; he made her heart crush inwards and explode at the same time. She almost reached out touch him. She wanted to caress his cheek but didn't. She left the room. _

_"I don't remember you ever bringing me dinner." Lloyd. There he was, waiting for her to leave Neo's room.***** _

Thalia woke at that moment, just as Lloyd had been about to say more. She was sweating, but it not from fear. Her heart was racing. Just because of a dream? A dream about this Neo person could make her heart pound with desire and attraction? She wanted to know more, but she could only learn via her dreams, and sleep would be all but impossible now that she was so wide-awake. Lloyd's even breathing hissed in her ears. _I _have­_ to get out of here._ For the sake of her sanity, Thalia threw aside the covers and searched for her discarded jogging clothes from the day before. The clock on the nightstand flashed 6:34 as she dressed quickly and headed for the door. 

***********************************************************************

Thalia's mind ran faster than her body. Her pace had started off at the usual lope, but she had gradually slowed down. She walked in circles around the city, letting chance guide her. A left turn here, a right turn there. After about an hour of this, she stopped and looked up to gauge her bearings. She knew every inch of this city; born and raised in the city, she lived here with Lloyd, when he was not filming on location. 

The Heart O'the City Hotel had been condemned years ago, and yet it still stood, defiant despite its shoddy appearance. She walked around the building. For no reason she could fathom, Thalia wanted to go in and explore it. She peeked around the corner to check for a back entrance. The fire escape would do, if she could reach it. Jumping up to grab the bottom rung was a simple task for someone in such superb shape as herself. She was on the bottom landing of the fire escape in two minutes. She leaned against the ladder to the next floor and surveyed the area all around. 

Dead stillness. Now was the time of day when it was both too early and too late for anyone to be out and about. Thalia looked up the ladder. She could try each level until she found an open door. Climbing up the ladders towards that end, Thalia stopped abruptly at the third floor. This door would be open, she was absolutely positive. The handle, indeed, did give way and permitted her to enter. She strolled through the hallways on tiptoe, making as little noise as possible. She passed door after door, ducking the cables and cobwebs hanging from the ceiling. 

_309...307...305... 303..._

She stopped. The door was not only ajar, it was off its hinges. It looked like it had been broken inwards. Peering in, Thalia discovered a nearly empty room. The only pieces furniture were a chair, lying in the corner and a desk with a lump in the center of it. Thalia entered and moved to pick up the chair. She dragged it over to the desk and sat down. The lump on the desk was not merely a lump. It was a laptop. 

"Here?" Thalia wondered aloud. She opened it and found, to her surprise, it was still fully functional. It opened to reveal saved program that had resumed running once she had started the computer. Articles flashed across the screen, and new ones replaced them faster than Thalia could read the old ones. They all focused on one man, and all of them used the same black and white photo. He wore sunglasses that hid his eyes, and as far as she could tell, he was African-American. The name under his picture was 'Morpheus'. 

A shiver of recognition marched along Thalia's spine. Like 'Trinity,' 'Morpheus' was so familiar a moniker. Vague memories of a cyber-criminal of that name came to her slowly. She clicked randomly, yet correctly, in order to slow down the articles. One after another, Thalia absorbed the details on this Morpheus character. He was called a desperate criminal, an anti-social anarchist, and worse. Yet all the articles rang false for Thalia. She couldn't believe them. They didn't complement her hidden opinion of him. The laptop stopped running the articles and printed a message: HOST COMPUTER HAS NO MORE FILES FOR DOWNLOAD. That meant the files had come from somewhere else. This computer had been watching the actions of another computer. Whose was the other computer? 

"This way, she's upstairs." Those four words froze Thalia's mind. She dashed out of the room. From her dark corner, she saw a few flashlights making their way up the stairs. The owners of those flashlights were already on the second floor, and they would be on the next flight of steps in a second. Without another moment's hesitation, Thalia took off down the hall as silently as her pace would allow. She rejoiced as she didn't hear the footsteps behind her speed up. Flinging the fire escape door aside, she bolted out onto the metal landing. She could see the shadow of a police car in the alleyway. There was no where to go but up. 

Thalia bounded up the stairs, taking them three at a time. The sick feeling that this had all happened before was squashed by her panic, but it was still there and gaining ground. She made it to the roof and wasted no time crossing it and jumping to the next building. She dropped to the ground of the next roof, keeping herself lower than the brick outcropping. 

"She's got to be up here. Oh man, if this is another prank call, I'm gonna kill the dispatcher." More voices grunted in assent. Thalia peeked over the edge. One cop swiveled his flashlight over the other roof. She ducked long before the beam came close to her roof's edge. The men all swore repeatedly, and their heavy footsteps retreated down the stairs. Thalia waited five minutes after she heard the cars pull away before she had the nerve to check again. 

No one was there. Sighing in relief, she looked around for a way to get off the roof. 

"Freeze!" Thalia did freeze. She threw her hands up before the voice could order her to. "Turn around, slowly!" She obeyed the order. A young cop had his weapon trained on her. He made a move for his radio, but his hand never got to it. Thalia watched, horrified, as his face morphed. It looked like a series of green numbers ran up and down his features and then suddenly his face and clothes reformed. In his place, stood a man in a black suit. He pulled a giant gun and aimed at her. 

"Do not move, Mrs. Reagan. I only want to talk to you." _With a gun pointed at my head?_ Thalia couldn't believe what she was hearing. She stood still. The suited man made the jump across the roof to be at her side. He saw her panic rise at the proximity of his weapon. "Relax, I'm here to protect you. I work for the government. We discovered a dangerous criminal is harassing you. Has a man called 'Neo' contacted you in any way?" Thalia nodded. 

"My computer, he..." she trailed off. She didn't trust this man any farther than she could throw him. Lies came to her tongue easily. "I think he wants to kill me. I tried to trace him on my computer. It said he was here. I thought I could...oh, I don't know. Please, could you give me a ride home?" Thalia swayed a bit, playing up her damsel-in-distress routine. The man offered her his arm, which she took, appropriately grateful. 

"Certainly, Mrs. Reagan. Why don't we get off this roof and talk a little?" Thalia nodded numbly, and they used the stairs to reach the ground. He asked her some cursory questions that only required a nod or shake of her head to answer. Two other men in the exact same type of suit approached them as they left the building. The one she had just met left her and told her to stay while he conversed with his colleagues. She heard snippets of their conversation. 

"...she doesn't know anything?" 

"…he has talked to her...nothing serious, she's afraid of him...doesn't know where he is..." 

They all turned to face her, and one beckoned her to come over. Another opened the door for her. 

"It's our pleasure to give you a ride home, Mrs. Reagan." Thalia smiled and thanked them. The ride was quiet, and they reached her house in fifteen minutes. "Please, contact us if he should approach you again," one handed her a card. 

"I surely will. Thank you all so much." 

********************************************************************** 

Thalia entered the house quietly, but the closing of the door spooked Lloyd. 

"There you are! Oh God, I was so worried!" He clasped her close. "The police called. They said that someone is stalking you, and when I couldn't find you..." Lloyd sounded like he was on the verge of tears. Thalia found herself repulsed by his profuse affection. She patted his arm and headed for the bathroom. He kissed her before she left to take her bath. The warm water massaged her body and relaxed her tense muscles, and slowly her mind stopped whirring at a fever pitch. She drifted into unconscious and blissful sleep. 

_***** "You killed them." _

_She was talking to Lloyd again, and she was still in the abandoned store. Neo was there, but there were two other people Thalia didn't recognize. A stocky man dressed in black and a blonde woman in dirtied white leather were both standing at attention, each holding guns. _

_"I' m tired, Trinity, tired of this war, tied of this ship, tired of being cold, tired of eating the same goddamned goop everyday. But most of all, I'm tired of that jack-off and all of his bullshit." Thalia listened to Lloyd moving around...wherever he was. "Surprise, asshole! I bet you didn't see this coming, did you? God, I wish I could be there when they break you. I wish I could walk in just as it happens, so right then, you'd know it was me." _

_"You gave them Morpheus." *****_

Thalia sat bolt upright in the tub. She had said 'Morpheus.' The dream was expanding, and now more characters were involved. She tried to dismiss it. She had to have dreamed about that name only because she had read the computer screen. That had to be it. 

"You almost done in there, baby?" Lloyd rapped lightly on the door. "I have to go to work now, so I'll see you and Sammy later for dinner, right?" 

"Yes, eight o'clock. Have a nice day," Thalia sang as sweetly as she could. Not until Lloyd left did she relax. Dressing in record time, Thalia dried her hair as she booted up her computer. The screen was black again. A message was waiting for her. 

[Did you see him?] 

Thalia could not pretend misunderstand the question. Maybe the man in the suit had thought the light insufficient, but she had seen, quite vividly, him appear where the cop had been. 

[They're looking for you; how did you see that without them catching you?] 

[They can't do anything to me.] 

[You're that good?] 

[No, I'm just beyond their reach. I'm beyond everyone's reach. That's why I need your help. That's why I need Trinity back.] 

Thalia felt tears prick her eyes. She could picture Neo's morose features as he typed that message. He really did need her; he wouldn't explain why, but she trusted that it didn't matter. 

[Was I her in another life? Is that why you want me to be her?] 

[Another life, right. A missing life that's not completely missing. You have remembered, haven't you?] 

[Yes.] 

[I can still hear you saying that. Do you remember when you said that to me last?] 

Tears poured from Thalia's eyes. It was real. It had happened. Some how, her life was not meant to be. Trinity was supposed to exist, not her. Yet they were the same person? 

[I've dreamt about that for the past few months, maybe longer. It feels like I've always had that dream.] 

[No, the past few months is accurate. There is nothing before that. You are living a lie, Thalia.] 

[Don't call me that, okay? It makes it harder to be what you want me to be.] 

[I can show it all to you. Everything.] 

Thalia's breath stuck to her lungs. There it was. The offer that would end the nightmare, she hoped. 

"Fuck the dreams, I just want the truth." Thalia swore aloud to no one in particular. She had no idea that that was what she wanted until she had said it, but the words must have been forming unconsciously somewhere in the back of her mind. 

[When? Where can we talk?] 

[It's not safe to tell you here. I'll find you.] 

That was it. Thalia turned off her computer and stared at the blank screen. For the first time in as long as could remember, she wasn't nervous. Things would sort themselves out, Neo would show her what had happened to her. She collapsed on the bed. For the first time in months, she didn't dream. 

***********************************************************************

**PART 3: Answers**

***********************************************************************

Thalia woke to Lloyd stroking her hair. 

"You forget about dinner?" He teased her as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. 

"Oh shit! Is Sammy here already?" Thalia sat up and threw aside the covers. She frantically tore through her closet. Lloyd's laughter halted her movements. "What?" 

"Relax, you've got a whole half an hour to find the perfect casual outfit." He collapsed into a spasm of laughter, and she was obligated to smack him once or twice for it. 

"Well, fine. Has Rose left already? Did you pick up some wine? Is the table set?" Thalia found comfort in her preoccupation with the intricacies of normal life. After the past twenty-four hours, normal was looking good again. Lloyd left to check on the arrangements while Thalia sped through her last few minor preparations.

***********************************************************************

"Dinner was great, thank you both so much. And thank Rose for me, will you?" Sammy grabbed his coat and hat from their spot by the door. 

"Here, I'll walk you out, Sam." Lloyd opened the door for his agent while Thalia gave him a hug. 

"Hope to see you more often on these types of occasions, Sammy." The two men left, Lloyd toting his cigar case. Cigars meant they'd be out there talking for another twenty minutes at least, depending on how close to throat cancer they wanted to get in one evening. Thalia picked up the dishes and brought them to the sink. Some how, it was an unspoken rule in their house that whatever the maid or the cook did not do to clean up was Thalia's job. She lamented the stereotypical chores assigned to her, but she never complained to Lloyd. 

Tonight, she was finding these simple domestic realities a wonderful change of pace. Part of her hoped that dishpan hands were her worst of her problems for the evening. At the recesses of her mind, however, Thalia awaited contact from Neo. The thrill of adventure, a promise of intimate and sensitive knowledge, everything that meant she was about to change her life permanently, and she wanted it. No, she _hungered _for it. 

And Neo...he was something to her, that much was clear. If she really was this Trinity person in another life... It meant so many things would have to change. She could not figure out how to go back or how to go forward. There was no way to erase the dreams that had emerged since meeting Neo, and the future was black and terrifying, no matter which way she envisioned turning. A life on the run, like Neo had, versus a life of domestic normalcy while knowing she could be destined for something greater. Either one could likely drive her insane. 

"That Sammy, he sure can pack away the liquor, huh?" Lloyd's speech was slurred enough to indicate that he, too, had downed a considerable amount of alcohol at dinner. He made it to the couch before collapsing with a sigh. 

"Why don't you go lie down? I'll be done here in a minute." Lloyd nodded and stumbled his way into the bedroom. Even over the noises of running water and clanking dishes, Thalia could hear his snoring a minute later. She finished the dishes in another ten minutes, but she was in no hurry to go to sleep. She'd been sleeping all day as it was. Something about sleeping with Lloyd was beginning to disgust her anyway, so she decided it would be better to just relax. Maybe go for a walk. 

_On second thought_… She figured after all the trouble her last walk had caused, maybe staying indoors was a better idea. The remote in hand, Thalia reclined on the couch and clicked on her TV. The doorbell rang all of two seconds after she had sat down. She jumped up and then stopped. Lloyd's whistled snores were still sounding from the bedroom. It was probably Sammy. Thalia laughed at her own apprehension, but she felt nervous nonetheless. Sammy being at the door made the most sense, but sense was is short supply of late. Thalia managed to overcome her hesitancy and answered it. 

"Hello again." 

_Neo._

***********************************************************************

"Where are we going?" Thalia had no idea where or how Neo had gotten a car, but those questions were not nearly as troubling as the question of their destination. 

"I can't tell you that. You'll see. It's not dangerous, I promise." Thalia sat on the rest of her questions for the remainder of the ride. They pulled up to a rather ominous and dour-looking building. Neo killed the ignition and got out. Thalia stared at the façade in front of her. If she kept getting that strange feeling of recognition, she never would remember her life before it. The building made bells go off, it fit with all the rest of this mystery. Neo opened her door, and a moment later they were entering. 

"What is this place?" Neo smiled at that. "What?" 

"Nothing, just something I said once." She didn't know whether to find that odd or interesting because it was probably both and neither at the same time. She followed him up eight flights of stairs. They reached a foyer with an ornate door on one end. Neo smiled again as she stood, apprehensive, in front of it. 

"What now? You do this too?" Thalia had to admit that although his continued amusement helped stave off her anxiety, it was getting a little annoying. 

"No, it's just the last time I was here, you opened this door...for me." He kept his smirk and opened the door. The room on the other side of the door was by no means decrepit, but it was in need of repair. Heavy draped curtains hung over dirty windows; two old armchairs faced one another in front of a marble fireplace; the wallpaper was yellowed but not flaking off. Thalia thought it made the place friendly more than anything. Neo walked right past the chairs, but he trailed one finger along the top of the chair with its back to the door as he headed for the other door in the room. Thalia followed silently behind. 

The objects in the next room were completely out of place for the rest of the building. As far as Thalia had seen, the building had not one piece of new furniture or ornamentation from any time after it was built. This room was different, to say the least. Machines were everywhere, as were monitors, buttons, lights, and other equipment pieces that she couldn't place. 

"It's all still here, if you can believe it. I guess they didn't need to get rid of any of it, since there's no one left to use it." Neo's voice had dropped, picking up that sad tone Trinity had seen mirrored in his face. Neo picked at the machines, pushing a button here, flipping a switch there. He looked frustrated, almost as if he didn't know everything he needed to do to make it work. 

"I'll help you." Thalia moved to his side. Automatically, she reached for random buttons, buttons she didn't recognize but knew to push. In ten seconds, she had the equipment up and running. Neo gave her an impressed look, to which she blushed and sputtered about it being nothing. 

"You do remember all this?" 

"Sort of," she fidgeted and played with her fingers, not looking at him. When she finally worked up the nerve, she saw his expectant face. He was waiting for her to continue. "It's like you said, I just sort of know it. I don't know how, but it's there. I can't remember anything non-technical, though. I barely know who you are." 

"That's not true. You have remembered a little, right?" Thalia nodded and dropped her eyes to her lap again. "Tell me what you know about me, about the people you can remember." 

"I can remember your face, and two other people's faces. One of them is a man with longish wavy hair, and he's kind of stocky. The other is a woman with peroxide-blonde hair cut short. I've seen them and you and me too in a store somewhere. You and the other man are in black, but the woman is in white. I never see what I'm wearing. Who are they? Were we friends?" 

"I barely knew them, so I'm afraid I don't know about any relationships you had with them. I can give you their names, if it helps." 

"Please." 

"The man was Apoc, and the woman was Switch. Go on, tell me what else you remember." Thalia took a deep breath before continuing. 

"I'm on the phone, I think I'm talking to Lloyd." Neo sneered at the name. Thalia ignored it. She told him the rest, seeing him die, not knowing what happened to the other two. She added the part about her seeing him while he was sleeping as a separate memory. He smiled at that, making Thalia blush. "That's pretty much all I know." 

"Not too bad, but we still have a lot of ground left to cover." Neo rubbed his hands together and looked over the equipment. 

_Now,_ Thalia told herself,_ ask him now_. 

"How come you know Lloyd?" Neo turned away, an angry look disfiguring his handsome face. 

"Let's not focus on that now. It's important, but we can get to it later." 

"No!" Thalia's cry startled them both, and for a moment, she was off guard, but she recovered. "No, you tell me now. I've put up with a lot of your mysterious stranger crap, and I think I deserve an answer." Neo took a deep breath and nodded. 

"Lloyd, huh?" He spat and began again. "Fine, call him what ever you want. I knew him, yeah." 

"How?" Thalia crossed her arms and waited. 

"His handle, that's his real name. In the real world, that's the only name you have. His was Cypher, but you can call him Judas for all I care." Neo's angry snarl held such menace, and he spit out the word 'Cypher' with such hate that Thalia was momentarily stunned. Lloyd had been involved in this past life? 

"What happened? Why do you hate him so much? What did he ever do to you? What, he beat you out for a part?" Thalia was amazed to find herself defending Lloyd. She knew it wasn't merely to defend Lloyd, it was just a last desperate clutch to her life. 

"No, nothing so mundane as a stupid job." 

"Acting is a vicious occupation. There are a lot of vindictive people out there. How do I know you don't just want me to turn on my husband? What did he do?" 

"He killed me." 

***********************************************************************

Lloyd Reagan was deep in the sleep of a drunken man, yet dreams still permeated the alcohol's blinding haze. 

_*****The man on the street was in front of him. He looked different, but it was him. He looked like he was asleep. His breathing was slow and regular. He hated this man. He envied him, why, Lloyd had no idea. This man had something over Lloyd, something Lloyd had always wanted and never gotten. This man had gotten whatever it was, and he didn't have to try to get it. It was his, not Lloyd's, and Lloyd hated him for it. _

_There was something attached to the man's head. A plug of some kind. Lloyd saw it and reached for it. He yanked on it, and a long needle-like object came out of his head. A steady beeping noise that Lloyd hadn't recognized earlier was now one long and continuous bleating. _

_Somehow, he had just killed the man...and he was happy.***** _

***********************************************************************

"He what?" 

"You saw it, you just told me you had." Thalia felt bile creep up her throat. She had seen it. She had seen Neo die, and yet not until now did the fact he was still alive trouble her. She grasped at threads, trying to ignore both her own memory and what Neo was telling her. 

"But...but you're here. You're not dead, not if you're here. How...how..." she was gasping and choking as her throat closed and opened. She couldn't lose it, not now. Neo reached out and touched her face. 

"Look at me, Thalia. I'm right here. Look at me," he ordered her. She focused on his face, and the upset in her stomach subsided. "You have to relax. This is why I didn't want to tell you right away." He never broke eye contact with her. 

"Get away from me!" She surged backwards, her voice near shrieking. "Who are you!?! Why are you doing this to me!?!" She held her head between her hands, shaking it gently. Neo didn't move. He let her get it out of her system. Thalia's shallow breathing slowly became more regular, and in about five minutes she had completely recovered. She glared at Neo. "Tell me how! Tell me!" 

"I don't know what to tell you because I don't understand it all myself. Perhaps this isn't a good idea. I'll take you home." He stood up only to have Thalia knock rudely him back into his chair. 

"No! You tell me everything! You either tell me now, or I walk and you leave me alone for good!" Thalia sat across from him and waited. Neo began slowly, but his voice never faltered. He started with the weird message on his computer, a message Trinity had sent. He told her about meeting at the club, talking to Morpheus the next day at work, and getting arrested right after. He told her about the agents interrogating him, and how he met her, Switch and Apoc later and how she removed the bug the agents had planted on him. He emphasized her role in everything: meeting with Morpheus in the room they had just been in, coming in here to be freed, the real world, his training, and lastly, the excursion into the Matrix to meet the Oracle. 

"That's pretty much it, up until what you remember. That's all I know. I went from finding out that I wasn't who Morpheus wanted me to be to being dead and then to being here." Thalia had sat through the entire lecture very still. Everything was true; Neo wasn't lying. She didn't have to remember it for it to have happened. The ship, Morpheus, the quest to discover the One...all of it was too real to not have happened. Neo looked at her. He was waiting for her reply. What should she say? 

"I think I'm going to be sick." 

***********************************************************************

Lloyd woke around two am to find himself alone. He struggled out of bed and paced the house looking for Thalia. When he accepted the fact she was really gone, he had no idea what to do. Should he call the police? What if she had just been unable to sleep and went for a walk? _Shouldn't cry wolf_, he reasoned, especially if this stalker the officer on the phone had warned him about later assaulted her. Lloyd collapsed on the couch and promptly fell back asleep. 

_*****It was late. Trinity was asleep, so was everyone else. He entered her room without a sound. He had just dreamed about her. She didn't even know he existed, but he was crazy about her. She was beautiful, tough, smart, and available. All of those things should have gotten them together already, especially that last one. But they hadn't, and she wasn't interested. He ogled her body. She was so attractive, and if he thought he could get away with it, he'd have stroked her back or played with her hair. This was love, it had to be. Trinity didn't love him. She was too preoccupied with this guy that Morpheus was so excited about to notice him. _

_"One day, baby, it's gonna be just you and me." He left her.***** _

Lloyd sat bolt upright on the couch. Who was Trinity, or Morpheus for that matter? Why did Trinity look like Thalia? What the hell was wrong with him?

***********************************************************************

"When I woke up again, I was in my apartment," Neo was still talking. His voice was soothing even though his words were disturbing. "I can't explain it. I know my body is dead. Switch and Apoc both died when Cypher pulled their plugs, but I didn't. I almost wish I had." 

"No, don't say that," Thalia whispered. Neo being dead was a nightmare far crueler than the one she was living. That made no sense to her, but it was true. She remembered how awful it was to watch him die before, and she'd take anything over him being dead. Even this. "The Oracle told me I wasn't the One, and she was right. She was right about everything, you know. She told me that I would have to decide whether I lived or Morpheus did. For a long time, I thought I hadn't been allowed to choose, but I figured it out eventually. I did choose. I didn't stay to help Morpheus. If I had, he wouldn't have been left behind, and no one would have died." 

"What are you talking about?" 

"Morpheus was in trouble, and I didn't stay to help him. I knew he couldn't beat an agent. He told me himself that no one could...that everyone who fought an agent would die. I ran with the rest of you guys. If I had stayed, I could have helped, maybe not lived, but helped. Morpheus would have gotten out, and none of this would have happened." 

"None of what?" Neo bowed his head. There was more he wasn't telling her. She got up from her chair and took his hands. She kneeled in front of him and lifted his chin. "Tell me, please? I need to know." Neo nodded and swallowed hard. 

"After I woke up in my apartment," he started, "I ran. I couldn't explain it, but I knew something was seriously wrong. I don't know how I found him, but I did. I found where they were holding Morpheus. For some reason, none of the agents saw me. I walked right into the interrogation room without a problem. I watched as they broke him. The agents asked him for codes to something called the Zion mainframe. I knew about Zion, so whatever they had in mind to do with those codes couldn't be beneficial. Morpheus was drugged, and he told them what they wanted." 

"No…" Thalia breathed. Neo nodded. He would never, _could_ never lie or water down the truth for her. 

"One of the agents left for all of three minutes, but when he returned, he said that the sentinels were already destroying the city...that the computer had been destroyed. That meant anyone in the Matrix at the time was dead, and the rest were sitting ducks. Morpheus had recovered, but he was no match for the agents. They shot him. I tried to stop them..." Neo broke down. Tears fell unabated from his eyes. Morpheus' death had been his fault; that's how he saw it. 

"There wasn't anything you could have done. You were dead first. They couldn't even see you, right? How could you have done anything?" Thalia hugged him tightly. His tears wetted her shirt, and she could feel his body shudder with sobs. He felt so real; she could not believe he was not. 

"I could have done something. I tried..." he muttered against her shoulder. She released him and looked into his eyes. "I screamed. I yelled every curse I could think of. I ran to him and tried to help. They saw me once I screamed. They didn't do anything at first, but after they recovered, they fired at me." 

"God, what happened?" Thalia traced the line of his tears as he tried to continue. 

"Nothing. The bullets hit me, and they didn't hit me. I was hit, the bullets went through me, but I wasn't bleeding. I didn't have any wounds. The agents tried to fight me, hand-to-hand, but they couldn't connect with me. Their hands went through me. They couldn't do anything." 

"Oh my God. That's what you meant when you said they can't reach you?" Neo nodded. "What the hell is going on?" 

"I'm not dead. The Oracle said one of us, Morpheus or me, would die. He's dead, so I must be alive. But I'm not. I don't exist. I'm...I'm...a glitch." He convulsed into another set of heavy sobs, and Thalia held him again. So much pressure and responsibility weighed down his shoulders. His whole body was racked by the spasms of his depression. Thalia's heart shattered on the jagged edge that was his pain. Right then, she knew she would help him. No matter what he asked, no matter what risk to herself, she would help him. Death, hell, pain, all of them it didn't matter at all. She wouldgive him her own soul just to stop his pain. And he might ask for it, so she needed to be ready. 

She would be Trinity again, just for him. 

***********************************************************************

**PART 4: Complications **

*********************************************************************** 

"Thalia?" Lloyd rolled over from his side, reaching out with his arm first to feel for his wife. His arm fell onto the empty sheets. No Thalia. Where could she be? He vaguely remembered her not being there earlier that morning. Only his hangover kept him from leaping out of bed to go investigate the rest of the house. As it was, though, Lloyd dressed as quick as he was able. He paced across the house and then retraced his steps. 

He was alone. 

***********************************************************************

Sunlight falling across her eyelids finally rousted Thalia from her deep sleep. She stretched, blissfully rested. The night before had been more surreal than any of her dreams, which had mercifully left her alone this time. She rubbed sleep from the corners of her eyes and looked around. The machinery in the room hummed and whined softly. She wasn't surprised to find she was still in this place. She had known when she fell asleep that she would still be on the couch when she woke. Neo was over by the window, a faint smile on his lips. He turned as her heard her stir. He didn't look tired, but his wrinkle-free clothing betrayed the fact he had not slept last night. 

"Morning. Have a nice nap, did we?" 

"Well I had a nice rest, yes, but 'we' is another story." She stood up and walked over to tug on his jacket. "I can tell you didn't sleep, so therefore, I conclude that 'we' did not nap. Makes sense, logically." Neo's smile widened as he allowed himself a chuckle or two. Trinity smiled in return, masking the marching tune to which her heart was beating. His smile, his laugh, both made her flutter. 

"You win, you win. I give up." He held his hands up in surrender. The amusement died away as the seriousness of the situation caught up with them. Thalia's mind ricocheted between admiration and fascination with Neo and apprehension about Lloyd. He had never been overtly jealous or suspicious about her before, but she remembered how he had reacted to her talking with Neo on the street. He smelled a scandal, and if Neo was right, and she knew he was, Lloyd should suspect a great deal more than that. 

"I have to go home sometime, don't I?" Neo sighed and nodded. Thalia pouted slightly at that. A small voice, she might have called it conscience, chided her for that reaction. Lloyd was a loving man, and they had had a wonderful marriage. Just because it was not real, or because, in another life, Lloyd had hurt her was no reason to want to destroy such happiness. 

"I'll drive you home. I'll drop you off a block or two from your house, and he might not be too upset. Think that's remotely possible?" Thalia shook her head. 

"I don't know for sure, but I think he's going to be either really pissed or really worried." 

"Worried? What, does he keep you on a leash? Does he track you with a collar? Why is it his business where you are 24-7?" 

"Hey, relax, okay? He's just a little on edge because of the phone call from the cops." 

"What? What phone call?" Suddenly, Neo looked tense. Thalia could have slapped herself. She had completely forgotten to tell him about the phone call Lloyd said he had gotten from the police. 

"Yesterday morning, when I went out to that building, and those men gave me a ride home, Lloyd was waiting at the door. He said the cops had called." 

"About you?" 

"No, about you, actually. He said they had told him you were stalking me. That's what the suits told me, too." Neo's face paled. 

"Shit." 

"What? What's wrong?" 

"They know I've spoken to you." 

***********************************************************************

"Good morning, Mr. Reagan." Lloyd stared at the man on the other side of his door. The man's clothing smelled of government work: black suit and tie, starched white shirt, gold tie clip, shined shoes, dark sunglasses, and, perhaps the biggest clue that he was some sort of G-man, an ear-plug radio of some kind, the type Lloyd had seen in some of his movies when people were portraying Secret Servicemen. 

"Can I help you?" 

"My name is Agent Smith. I'm here to ask you a few questions concerning your wife. May I come in?" The mention of Thalia erased most of Lloyd's resistance, but he was still skeptical of this Smith person. 

"Don't you people travel in pairs? Where's your partner?" 

"Agent Brown is just down the road. He's the look out. I can explain everything, Mr. Reagan, but I would prefer not to do it in front of all your neighbors." Lloyd nodded and stepped aside to let Agent Smith enter. "Please, won't you sit down?" Lloyd motioned to the chair opposite the couch he was sitting at. Agent Smith did so. "I'm going to come right to the point, Mr. Reagan. I am here because your wife and possibly you, too, are in danger." Lloyd couldn't tell if it was the liquor from the night before that kept him from reacting to that piece of news. Agent Smith didn't appear to notice or care how Lloyd reacted, and he continued while Lloyd was a captive audience. 

"Yesterday morning, your wife was found on the roof of a building. There she was approached by my partner, who escorted her home. Now, doubtless you know she was driven home, but what you don't know is why. She informed us that she had gotten a threatening message from a potential stalker, and that she had traced his link to her computer to the Heart O'the City hotel. She also told us that upon hearing our entrance into the building, she assumed it was the man responsible, and so she ran. She jumped to the next roof where my partner finally managed to talk to her. That was yesterday, Mr. Reagan, yesterday in the early morning." 

"Yeah, I know that. The cops called to say all this. They told me that you guys had found her and would bring her home. So tell me what I don't know." Lloyd tried to keep from being rude, but something about this particular man rubbed him the wrong way. He couldn't place it, but he definitely distrusted this Agent Smith. Agent Smith, on the other hand, was placid and unruffled by Lloyd's angry question. 

"The problem, Mr. Reagan, is that what you don't know is something we also do not know." 

"What the hell are you talking about?" 

"At this time, I have told you all we know about your wife's involvement, but I have not told you about the person we believe is following her." 

"So tell me." 

"His name is Thomas Anderson, but that doesn't begin to tell you who he is. We have been trying to catch him for months now, but we are having a great deal of difficulty doing so. He has eluded every arresting officer or agent that has ever pursued him. He has escaped unscathed. Unfortunately, the same can not be said for many of the officers that have attempted to stop him. He has killed no less than ten men, employees of both state and government agencies." 

"Jesus, and this guy is after Thalia?" Lloyd's heart sunk to his stomach. If this guy really did want his wife, he would have her, unless Lloyd did something. 

"We believe so, Mr. Reagan. But there is a complication that we were hoping you could clear up for us." 

"What?" 

"Your wife. Now, at this time, we have no reason to believe she has lied to us about anything, I just want you to understand that before I continue." 

"But? I'm sensing a big 'but' coming up right about now." 

"Very astute, Mr. Reagan. As I was saying, we don't believe your wife has lied, but we cannot be sure. It is possible that this criminal is not stalking her. Instead, he may be working with her, as her partner. We thought it would be best to ask you if this is a likely scenario. Now, Mr. Reagan, I know this is tough, but you need to tell me if your wife could possibly involved with this man in any way." 

"No, no, I'm sure she's not." Lloyd shook his head. Smith was right; it was hard to think objectively. He naturally wanted to defend Thalia. He remembered his bitterness when he met that man on the street, the man who was now supposedly stalking her. He wanted that man alone to suffer, so he had more reason to deny his wife's involvement. Yet to be fair, he had to admit that they had seemed awfully cozy that day. 

"Mr. Reagan, I have to ask this: are you positive?" 

"Yes, I'm sure." 

"I hope so, Mr. Reagan. May I ask you where your wife is now?" Lloyd fidgeted uncomfortably. 

"She's not here." 

"Am I correct in assuming that you do not know where she is?" 

"Yes. She wasn't here this morning when I woke up." Agent Smith removed his sunglasses. Lloyd had failed to notice they were still on until he had taken them off. Strange, to be sure, but as it was not the oddest thing that had happened that morning, Lloyd ignored it. 

"Then the situation may have gotten much worse, Mr. Reagan. If, indeed, your wife is an innocent victim in all of this, then she may already be beyond our help. I do not think, however, that this is true. I feel certain that Mr. Anderson's obsession with your wife is such that he won't want to hurt her, but there is no telling what he may inadvertently do her sanity." 

"God, why is this happening to me?" Lloyd buried his head into his hands. Agent Smith remained stoic as Lloyd tried to collect himself. 

"Mr. Reagan, we are going to need your help to catch this man." 

***********************************************************************

"I thought they had just followed you because you went to the hotel. Damn!" Neo kicked the wall. Thalia jumped slightly at his sudden anger. 

"What is it?" 

"They probably know everything." Neo left to pick up the keys to the car and grabbed her arm. "I've got to get you home before I endanger your life anymore than I already have." 

Thalia followed him wordlessly. 

***********************************************************************

Agent Smith touched his ear piece. Lloyd watched, fascinated. He watched Smith listen to and absorb all the information coming through his radio. A slight smile broke across the previously austere façade. Lloyd shivered; Agent Smith's smile was more than just a little creepy. 

"What is it? Good news?" 

"The best, Mr. Reagan. My partner has just spotted your wife and the suspect pulling up about two blocks away. As soon as it appears she is out of harm's way, he'll move in." 

***********************************************************************

"Here we are, that's close enough." Neo put the car into park. He leaned back and sighed. Thalia could picture the lines of exhaustion that should have crossed his face. Somehow, his perfect composure disturbed her more. 

"Lloyd's going to ask me questions, and I think you and I need to work out some answers." 

"It's too late. The agents will have gotten to him. Listen to me," Neo held her by the shoulders, forcing eye-contact. "Tell them I am trying to kill you, tell them I threatened you, tell them I did it, anything that won't implicate you. I don't care what you say, I'll admit to doing it if should ever come to that, which it won't." 

"Why?" 

"You're the one in trouble, they can hurt you, not me. Tell them, in no uncertain terms, that you have nothing, nor do you want anything to do with me or anything they say that I've done." Thalia wanted to protest, but Neo put his finger on her lips stopping the words. "Don't. Just go. I need you alive and safe. That's what's important right now, you surviving." 

"Okay." Thalia didn't want to go, but she let common sense direct her against the desires of her heart. She managed to leave the car with only one pause. Neo leaned over and squeezed her hand for support before she shut the door. He sat back and watched Thalia drag herself along the sidewalk with obvious hesitency. Just then, Neo noticed the black sedan parked facing him on the other side of the street. The side window of the driver's seat rolled down. The agent behind the wheel stared straight at him. Neo knew he had been recognized. He watched mutely as the agent pulled out his weapon and trained it on...Thalia. 

"TRINITY!!!!" Neo screamed as he flew out of the car. He covered the hundred feet or so between himself and Thalia in seconds. Thalia turned at the name just in time to see Neo crash into her and knock her to a neighboring lawn. Thalia tried to see Neo's face, but he was looking at something else, and from her position, she couldn't see what it was. Neo kept his eye on the agent in the car. The agent hadn't made a move to fire...yet. Neo wasn't taking any chances that he would. He leapt up and sped over to the car. The agent had not anticipated that move, and Neo was easily able to kick the weapon out of his hands. 

Thalia watched the entire scene. In one smooth motion, Neo kicked the weapon out of the agent's grasp and into the air, caught it and held it at the agent's forehead. One bullet, and the agent was gone. Thalia swallowed, trying to fight the gorge rising from her stomach. She lost control and vomited, passing out in the process. Neo shook his head in silent apology to the person he had just killed. The agent had disappeared and left a middle-aged woman in a business suit behind. He was about to turn when the cold muzzle of another gun pressed against the base of his skull. 

"Drop it, Mr. Anderson." Neo dropped the weapon and about-faced to look at Agent Smith. 

"You can't kill me." Neo crossed his arms and enjoyed a smug look. 

"True, but I can kill her." Agent Smith gestured to Thalia's prone form. Neo's eyes grew impossibly wide. He bowed his head. He was resigned to whatever Agent Smith had in mind, and both of them knew it. "I believe we have an understanding then, Mr. Anderson." 

***********************************************************************

"THALIA!?!" Lloyd came screaming out of the house when he saw her faint. He raced over to where she lay, still unconscious. He cradled her head in his lap, willing her to wake up. Thalia's eyelids fluttered open. Lloyd turned her over on her side so she could clear her throat once more. "Oh God, baby, I was so worried!" He crushed her to him, burying her head into his shoulder. Thalia struggled just to breathe, but she also desperately wanted to see what had happened to Neo. 

"Where's...where is..?" Thalia could barely speak. She pushed away from Lloyd. 

"Don't worry, they've caught him." Lloyd pointed to and glared at Neo, who was being handcuffed. Agent Smith's 'partner' and another agent were leading him to the sedan. They shoved him into the back. Agent Smith shoved the corpse of the woman that had been his partner's avatar out of the car. The car started, and Thalia could only catch a glimpse of Neo as they peeled away. 

"Oh God," Thalia whimpered. Lloyd hugged her again as she started to cry. He helped her to her feet and supported her all the way to the house. Upon entering, Thalia headed straight for the bedroom, where she collapsed on the bed and cried until neither tears nor sobs would come. 

***********************************************************************

"So, Mr. Anderson, we finally get to talk." Agent Smith glowered triumphantly over Neo. As programs went, Agent Smith's was the one Neo would have considered the most human. He obviously enjoyed Neo's suffering. Agent Smith did enjoy it, but he was upset that he couldn't inflict any physical pain on Neo. Somehow, Neo had an agent's invulnerability. It didn't compute with Agent Smith's logic program. A human was not supposed to have those abilities.

"Why don't you just do us both a favor and purge my RSI from your damn mainframe? Save us both a lot of trouble." Neo sneered at Agent Smith. Just because he was here under their control didn't mean he had to be some kind of sniveling supplicant. 

"Actually, Mr. Anderson, that is why you're here. We are, as I speak, trying to do just that. It just makes our job easier to have you here, and it assures us that you are not out there spreading your garbage." 

"That's an awfully funny euphemism for 'truth' you machines have." 

"Why? Think about it, Mr. Anderson. If you told everyone what you know, they'd tell you it was just that, garbage. Do you deny that?" 

"No. I don't have to deny anything to anyone. That would be your job." Neo relaxed in his seat a bit. He folded his arms and latched his fingers together behind his head. "Tell your buddies to hurry up, I hate waiting." 

"It may happen sooner than you would wish, Mr. Anderson." 

***********************************************************************

Thalia washed her face for the seventh time. No matter how hard she rubbed at her face, she could still see the red trails of tears on her face. Why was she so upset? Neo had killed someone. She had seen him walk right over to that man and blow his head away. That had made her absolutely sick, but Neo being taken away was worse. How would she help him now? She bent under the faucet again. She scrubbed at her eyes again. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears, and each beat spoke to her, saying Neo's name over and over. 

"I must be going mad," she told her reflection. She dried her face and switched the bathroom light off. Lloyd was lying in bed already. She drifted over to her side of the bed and climbed under the covers. 

"Tell me, Thalia, what happened? Did he..?" Lloyd had tried to bury the question, but he needed to know. Agent Smith had told him that this Anderson person had most likely threatened Thalia's mental health, but that he wouldn't hurt her physically. But her actions since coming home...Lloyd had seen a script once where a rape victim had behaved the same way. The idea of someone touching his wife against her will like that overpowered his better judgement. However, once the words were out of his mouth, he was sorry he had said anything. 

"I don't want to talk about it." Thalia turned the light over the bed off and slept with her back to him. Lloyd wanted to kiss her goodnight but thought better of it. He went to sleep without making any moves to touch her. Thalia waited to hear the sounds of Lloyd's rhythmic breathing before getting out of bed. Despite the murkiness of her mind, she was thinking clearly. She turned to look at Lloyd asleep. He looked peaceful, and she felt a twinge of guilt for what she was doing. She was going to leave him; she had to. And yet she couldn't. Maybe it was the guilt, maybe it was her own insecurity, or just maybe it was Neo's warning. He had told her not to come after him, not to risk her life for his. He couldn't be hurt, that's what he'd said. She had to trust him on this one. 

She didn't want to go back to bed, so she went and got dressed in her jogging clothes. Jogging had been her only release of late. Without another glance back, she left the house, praying that somewhere along the way she'd be able to just keep running and never come back. 

***********************************************************************

Her route had ceased to exist. Thalia ran wherever her feet led her. Today it was to the door of a run-down apartment in a bad section of the city. Without hesitation, she entered and took the elevator. One creepy tingling along her spine told her all she needed to know about this building. She had known it in her other life. She let the latent memory guide her to a door. Opening it, she immediately scoured the entire apartment, absorbing every detail. No one was home, and no one had been there recently. She roamed over the chaotic scene. Whoever had lived here had been forcibly removed. A slight scratching noise drew her attention to the kitchen. She looked for the source of the noise. It was coming from the cabinet in the corner. Thalia opened it. 

"I knew you would come. So did she," a slight girl whispered. Her blond curly locks were dusty from being inside the cabinet for too long, but she was otherwise fine. She hopped right out of the cabinet. 

"Who are you?" 

"My name is Natalie." 

"Why were you in there, Natalie?" Thalia bent down to look the girl straight in the eyes. 

"I knew they wouldn't find me there. She told me I had to live, I had to warn everyone. I have to save him." Thalia felt tears form at the corners of her eyes. This girl had lived through something awful, and she knew about it. And the 'him' she mentioned could only be one person. 

"Neo?" 

"Yes, I have to help him. That's what she said." 

"The Oracle?" "Yes, of course, who else? She didn't have to tell me, though. I knew I'd have to help." Thalia looked away for a moment. Here was a girl barely old enough to even be concerned about dating or boys or even clothes, and she was ready to save Neo. Why could she do it, and Thalia was still crippled by her relationship with Lloyd?

"What happened here?" Thalia swept her hand over the rest of the apartment. 

"They had to kill everyone. The Oracle wasn't free, none of us were, but they couldn't trace her or us. Morpheus told them where to find us. There wasn't anything we could have done, except hide. She told me to hide, and I did." Thalia stared at Natalie. 

"You knew what was happening?" 

"Yes. I can see too." Thalia didn't need to ask what 'seeing' meant. "I can see lots of things. I can make others see them too. I'm a potential, that's what she used to say." An idea flourished in Thalia's mind. 

"Can you help me see?" 

***********************************************************************

**PART 5: Revelations**

***********************************************************************

Thalia walked hand in hand with Natalie. Natalie skipped to keep up with Thalia's long strides. It was amazing to Thalia how this girl could go from being cryptic to being positively girlish in six seconds. The entire way Natalie had joked and giggled, and Thalia had smiled and nodded. She had decided not to go home. Lloyd was not on her side in this matter. He wouldn't understand why she needed this girl's help. Instead, Thalia brought her to the building she had just been in with Neo just a short while ago. 

"This is a good place. There are memories here," Natalie chimed in from Thalia's side. She was bubbly about her predictions, giving them out like gum, always smiling. 

"I didn't know where else to go." 

"This place is safe. They don't look here anymore. No exits running, nothing too dangerous." Natalie let go of Thalia's hand and ran up the last flight of steps. Thalia could hear her running to the room full of machinery, and soon the whine of the computers running trickled back to her ears. Natalie was gazing intently at the monitors in the room as Thalia came in, shutting the door behind her. 

"Natalie, what are you doing?" 

"I'm making sure this works." 

"How do you know how to work these machines?" Thalia pulled up a chair next to her. 

"I don't, but you did. I sorta borrowed the information from you." 

"Borrowed?" Thalia rubbed her eyes. The dull ache behind them was gaining ground against her restraints. "Does this have to do with your ability to see things?" 

"Yup. I know what you want me to do, too. Is that okay? I didn't mean to pry, but you were kinda emoting." Thalia laughed and shook her head. 

"It's okay, Natalie, just don't make a habit of it. Okay?" 

"Sure. Call me Nat, okay? Do you want to start right away?" Heart leaping with a surge of adrenaline, Thalia nodded enthusiastically. Nat giggled and grabbed her hand. She brought Thalia over to the couch in the corner, the same one she had slept in the night before. 

"Should I lie down?" Natalie nodded. "Have you done this before, Nat?" She shook her head. 

"No, but she told me how to do everything, not to worry. You have to relax before this can work." Thalia smiled at Natalie; it was strange for such a young girl to be giving out orders like a drill sergeant, but Thalia didn't object. She stretched out on the couch. Natalie walked over to a broken mirror and did some turns in front of it while she waited for Thalia to calm down. Thalia tried to clear her mind, but it wasn't working. When someone says 'don't think about...' whatever you're not supposed to think about comes marching across your mind, and Thalia was having that problem. 

Instead of clearing her mind, she tried to focus on one thing. If she could focus on one thing or person or event, she might relax a little. Neo was the first thing to come to her mind. He was a topic that she could dwell on. Her heart beat with an extra skip as she recalled his smile; she grinned when she pictured him laughing; she fell to pieces when he was in pain. He was why she was here, and thinking of him helped clear her mind. She didn't even notice when Natalie came back over. 

"This will feel a little weird." 

***********************************************************************

"Well, Mr. Anderson, I see you are still with us." Agent Smith had just returned. Neo had been waiting for hours for anyone to talk to him. He knew that nothing had changed. It was hopeless. If the agents couldn't erase him, no one could. He was doomed to an eternity in the Matrix, an eternity he didn't want or deserve. 

"Yeah, well can't say I'm surprised. Disappointed, maybe, but surprised, nope." Neo was reclining on his cot. He didn't need to sleep, or stretch for that matter, but it was a force of habit, even after months. 

"I'm afraid that that means you will have to be detained a while longer, Mr. Anderson." 

"You're not afraid of anything, except maybe me." Neo turned and faced the wall. He wanted to make it clear that, for him, the conversation was over. 

"I know you don't want to talk to me, Mr. Anderson, but I have a proposal for you." Agent Smith sat down at the table on the other side of Neo's cell. "Recall, if you can, that I offered you a chance to help us once before. You declined then, but perhaps you should reconsider." 

"Why? So I can kill anyone who might actually have the guts to resist you? Fat chance, asshole." 

"Very well then, Mr. Anderson. Then I have no other choice but to play my 'trump card' I believe you call it? The offer to help us stands, but we are willing to offer you something better than freedom in return." Neo turned slightly. His movement was all the confirmation Agent Smith needed. "How would you like to be able to feel again? I know that it bothers you not to be able to at least exist as a normal person within the Matrix. We can fix you so that you exist more fully. We might even go so far as to give you back your life. Whatever you want, Mr. Anderson, we can get for you." 

"Wait a sec," Neo got up and started pacing frantically. "I got it! I know this one! Okay, and here's the part where you say, 'all we're asking is for your cooperation...' blah, blah, blah! I knew I knew this one!" He laughed enough to cover Agent Smith's silence. "Jesus, don't you guys ever get new lines? No wonder you are so easy to spot." Neo collapsed back on the cot, triumphant. Smith stood up and headed for the door. 

"I am sorry to hear that you will not be accepting those privileges, Mr. Anderson. You should know that you will help us, whether you want to or not." 

"I said you needed new material. I've heard that one too." If Agent Smith were capable of flushing in anger, he would have. 

"You may be safe, beyond our control, Mr. Anderson, but you and I both know that she is not. I think you should reconsider my offer." Smith left the room without further elaboration. None was necessary. Neo knew exactly whom he meant. 

***********************************************************************

"Goodbye, Thalia," Natalie whispered. Before Thalia could panic at that, she was lost...awash in memories that weren't hers. 

_*****"Cypher? Where's Tank?" _

_"You know, for the longest time, I thought I was in love with you. I used to dream about you. Too bad things had to turn out this way, huh?" It was Cypher, what had he done? He couldn't have... _

_"You killed them."***** _

The picture faded into the rerun of the dream Thalia had had for months. She felt the recognition strike her skull repeatedly. Everything was there, nothing had been erased. They had only hidden it in the one place she could never break into on her own: her own mind. As more and more memories washed over her, Thalia ceased to be. She was there, but she was so dormant, that Trinity was all that broke through. 

_*****The One. Morpheus was obsessed with finding him, so why should she have to suffer and look too? Every target they had gone after this in depth turned out to be another failure. She crossed the names off her list as she performed checks on them all. _

_The last name was 'Neo'. What kind of stupid name was that? He was the loose cannon of the bunch. She always had a hard time tracking him down. Even bloodhounds like Apoc and Switch couldn't keep up with this guy. He was paranoid to an unhealthy degree, but so far she couldn't say it wasn't for lack of a reason. The agents were being especially thorough of late. Two candidates had been traced and assassinated within the past three months. Since screening for candidates took months, the loss of two was a serious setback. The agents were getting better, so she'd just have to get better, too. _

_This Neo guy seemed to be thinking along the same track. He encrypted everything to the nth degree, and she had to decode and track everything. Inadvertently, he had passed along several viruses to her inside computer. Viruses weren't his specialty, but the ones he used for protection were especially nasty. As far as she could tell, Neo liked to play the anarchist for hire. Anyone interested in thwarting the government, who had enough cash to pay for Neo's services, could get any number of sensitive materials from him. Nothing so outrageous as fake passports or such, but minor things, like pardons on speeding tickets, writs giving deductions on taxes from dummy organizations. _

_Despite herself, she liked his style. He took money out of the hands of drug dealers and such more than he did from honest people. He never let on to anyone else about his computer skills, save for what he would naturally know from his job. That was another minor ingenuity. He had gotten a job that both suited his talents and hid them from prying eyes. No one thought anything of a computer programmer knowing intimate details about computers. That was, after all, his job. _

Admit it, girl,_ she told herself,_ you like this guy_.***** _

Natalie was shaking. She wasn't straining herself much to help this woman, but she was afraid of how the woman was taking it. Her body writhed continuously, spasms ran up and down her back. If she kept it up, she might do herself a harm. 

"Please, hurry. Find what you need and come back, please?" 

_*****She was on the phone. Neo's body was sprawled over the floor next to Apoc's. Her whole body shook. This couldn't be happening. She liked Neo. No, she couldn't lie, she loved him, and the Oracle had said that when she fell for someone... _

_"You still there, baby?" _

_"You bastard..." she whispered into the phone. Cypher laughed on his end. She dropped the phone and moved over to Neo's body. She turned him over. His RSI was already cold. She held his head in her lap as she stroked his hair. "No, Neo...no..." tears cut off any other words she might have wanted to say. This couldn't be. He had to be alive. How could he be the One if he was dead? Wasn't that what Cypher had asked? No, she couldn't be wrong about Neo. He had to be the One. _

_"Pick up, Trinity! I know you can hear me!" The faint echo from the cell phone that was Cypher's voice ruined her moping. Instead of pain, she felt instant intense anger. She clawed at the phone as she let go of Neo. _

_"YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!! If I have to come back from the grave, Cypher, I promise you, I will kill you!" Cypher just laughed more. _

_"Relax, baby, you'll get yours one day too." Trinity wanted to spit right back some curse or witty retort. Instead, she sat there, back straightened and stiff, and waited. Waited for her own plug to be removed. She would face death unperturbed and deny Cypher any sense of victory. "You can relax, Trinity. I'm not going to kill you." _

_"What?" It had to be a trick. He was trying to get her to beg, to grovel at his feet so he could break her. _

_"You heard me. You're going to live." _

_"They won't let me, you know that." She had to ignore his attempts to dissolve her confidence. She needed to meet her death with her dignity intact. _

_"How do you think I'm getting out of this, Trin? I made a deal, and guess what? You're a part of it." Shudders ran between her shoulder blades. It felt like someone was blowing cold air through her soul. Surely, Cypher couldn't be that cruel. He had to be toying with her, he had to be. _

_"You're lying. I'd fight back, you prick." _

_"You won't remember anything, and neither will I, isn't that great? We'll be real happy together, Trin, I promise." _No, no, no_, Trinity screamed silently. It was only getting worse. Not only did she have to live, she had to live with Cypher, and she wouldn't know any of her friends. _

_"You bastard...you bastard!" She pounded the floor. She glimpsed at Neo and pain overtook her rage. If Cypher was lying, she wouldn't remember him either. She hadn't ever felt so deeply for another person before, how could she just forget him? Even after his death, she loved him. She closed her eyes against the flood of new tears. _

_"I know, Trinity, I know. You liked him, didn't you? You don't have to deny it, I'm not upset or jealous or anything. I know you liked him, I've known it for a while now. You were so absorbed by everything he did all those months when you watched him. Do you mind if I ask why?" _

_"Fuck you, Cypher." She squeezed her eyes tighter. She was still hoping for that miracle of death. All Cypher had to do was trip on her plug, and that would be it. She could join the crew in whatever came next. Even if there wasn't anything after death, nothing would be better than this. _

_"Soon, Trin, real soon. We'll get to do that and more. Sounds like fun, huh? Better than screwing a corpse. I bet I'm better than him anyway." _

_"You sick bastard! I don't care if you are Don-fucking-Juan!!! I won't be a part of your sick fantasy!!!" _

_"Yes, you will, and you'll love every minute because you won't remember this. You should be grateful, I'm taking away the pain of losing him, and I'm giving you a loving relationship." Cypher had to be out his mind. Here he was, a traitor who had killed five people she had cared about and had given up two others, one to death, the other to the agents, and all he could talk about was getting her. He acted like she was some prize; it was sickening. She had to hold back the gag in her throat. Over the connection, there came a loud metal-on-metal clanging noise. _

_"Hear that? They're here to pick us up, Trinity. I have to go now, but we'll meet again soon." Click. _

_"Asshole..." she muttered. There was nothing to do now. She opened her eyes and took a deep breath. Might as well get one more glance of the world while she knew the truth. She looked down at the bodies at her feet, trying to think of an appropriate apology to them._

_Neo's body was missing.*****_

Thalia bolted upright. Natalie fell backwards and landed on her butt with an 'oomph'. 

"Oh, jeez, I'm sorry," Thalia reached over to help Natalie up. Natalie took her hand and jumped to her feet. Dusting herself off, Natalie looked up at Thalia. 

"Are you alright?" 

"I'm fine...now. Did I hurt you?" Natalie shook her head. 

"I was worried because you looked like you were in pain." Thalia felt an involuntary shiver rack her body at Natalie's words. The memories hadn't all been painful, but the ones that had been were agonizingly so. 

"It's all right, Nat. I' m okay. The memories were a little upsetting, that's all. I think we need a plan right about now. We need to talk to Neo, so we can tell him we're fine." 

"You mean he's not here with you? He's not coming?" Natalie looked very upset. 

"No, Nat, he's not. The agents took him. He had to go with them. I think it was because they would have killed me if he didn't. They can't hurt him, so that's the only reason why he would go." 

"Why can't they hurt him? Has he discovered his power already?" Thalia stared at Natalie sharply at that. 

"What are you talking about? Nat, look at me." Thalia crouched down to Natalie's eye level. "Tell me what you mean." 

"He is the One." 

"No, no there must be some mistake. The Oracle told him he wasn't." 

"She was trying to help him. Where is he? I'll tell him." 

"Nat, I think you must be mistak..." Thalia wasn't able to finish before her legs buckled from underneath her. Natalie was right. _Why didn't I think of it earlier?_ How else could he have survived when his plug was removed? She had taken his word that the Oracle had told him he wasn't the One, and now Natalie had proven them both wrong. Neo was the One. There was no other explanation for all the extraordinary things he had done. He had lived despite the death of his body. Cypher had been right; Neo couldn't be the One if he was dead. But he wasn't dead, so therefore...? 

And her feelings for him. She loved him, she knew that for certain now. The Oracle had told her the man she loved would be the One. The Oracle hadn't lied about that, but she had willingly misled Neo. It had to be for a reason, probably to protect him or to keep him from getting too confident. 

"You understand now. She had to tell him that. She didn't lie, she just didn't tell him the direct truth." Thalia nodded numbly. 

"Can you talk to him, Nat?" Natalie nodded. She gave Thalia a smile that was too mature for one so young.

"Who should I say is calling?" She giggled. Thalia didn't hesitate. 

"Trinity." 

***********************************************************************

"Have you given our offer another thought, Mr. Anderson?" Agent Smith never wasted any time. The sooner he got to the point, the sooner Neo would have to make a choice between two equally repulsive options. Smith reveled in Neo's discomfort. Sadism it might be, but Agent Smith didn't care. He was programmed with hate for humanity, so animosity to one human didn't register as corruption to him. 

"Bite me, you sorry excuse for a can opener." Neo didn't turn to face Smith. He didn't want to let the agent see his face. He had to bite down on his lip to keep from agreeing. If he agreed, Trinity would be fine, but how many others' deaths would be the result? He had to stay silent, even though it meant Trinity's blood would be on his hands. 

((Trinity is fine, Neo.)) 

That voice, where had it come from? Neo held himself as still as possible. It had to be a trick. The agents had broken or changed something in his residual self-image that allowed them to talk directly to his mind. No, that didn't make any sense. If they could do that, Agent Smith wouldn't be there asking for his cooperation. 

"Too bad, Mr. Anderson. I assume you know what this means?" Smith's voice sounded malevolently pleased. He didn't actually care one way or another which way Neo chose to go because either choice meant that humans would suffer, especially this human. 

((Get out of there, Neo. They can't hurt you. Get out, now!)) 

The voice sounded young and feminine. He couldn't place it. He had certainly never heard it before, so where was it coming from? He strained to hear it again, he willed it to return. After a minute of nothing happening, he tried responding. 

((Who is this?)) 

"Goodnight, Mr. Anderson. I see you've made your choice." Agent Smith left, success written on his smug face. Neo barely noticed his exit. It didn't matter. 

((I am Natalie, and Trinity told me to tell you that she was here too.)) 

_Trinity?_ Neo couldn't believe it. Had she really remembered everything? It was a promise that he would die for, and yet he would die if it were a hoax, too. 

((Neo? It's me. I do remember, Neo. Natalie is here. She's helping me talk to you. She helped me remember. Now all we need is you. Please, get out of there. Come find us, I think you know where we are. No one can stop you but just make sure they don't follow you.)) 

It was Trinity. He had done it. He had brought her back. Briefly, he thought of Morpheus. Morpheus had brought him into the real world, and now he was returning the favor for Trinity. If he was successful, if they were successful, more would eventually join them. 

((I'm coming.))

***********************************************************************

"Still nothing," Agent Brown informed Agent Smith. The Matrix had been running all sorts of programs against Neo's RSI, and still it couldn't erase him. Somehow, he was still there, still the thorn in their sides. They were too busy trying the new plans of attack to notice Neo walk through the door of his cell. The Matrix itself didn't pay any attention to it either. Neo watched the agents for a moment. He could sympathize with their confusion when they discovered him missing later. He still couldn't explain how he could be immaterial and solid at the same time. It was handy, sure, but still mysterious. He left without a complication. He had a rendezvous with two ladies for which he didn't want to be late. 

***********************************************************************

**PART 6: Escape and Entrapment **

***********************************************************************

Trinity paced the room. Neo should have been there by now. _Get a grip, Trinity,_ she told herself. An involuntary smile graced her lips. She had referred to herself as Trinity. That was a good sign. 

"Hi, honey, I'm home!" Neo called from the first floor. Trinity sprinted out of the room and looked over the banister. Neo grinned up at her from the first floor. He jogged up the steps two at a time. He had gotten two floors up when Trinity vaulted over the banister and dropped to the landing next to him. She landed on her feet and sprang up to finish perfectly. Neo raised an eyebrow in an impressed gesture. 

"You made it," Trinity seized him in a hug. "Thank God." 

"Sure, now what's this about you becoming psychic?" Trinity smiled. Had it been anyone else, Neo would have expected laughter, but a smile was more of Trinity's style. 

"That would be Natalie, come on, I'll introduce you." Neo nodded and followed close behind. Natalie was toying with some of the equipment when they entered. She giggled at Trinity's 'ahem' and jumped away from the machines. Noticing Neo, Natalie stopped abruptly. 

"You made it! Oh goodie!" Natalie ran up and hugged Neo around the waist, which was as high as she could reach. Neo patted her head and laughed. 

"Well thanks, I guess. So what's going on?" Natalie let him go and gave him a quizzical look. 

"She didn't tell you? Then I will," Natalie tugged on Neo's hand and pulled him to the couch. 

"No, Nat, I don't think now is the time for that." 

"He has to know. She told me to tell him. Please, don't interfere." Natalie had donned the maturity in her voice that spooked Trinity. She didn't say another word to answer either Natalie's pleading or the question on Neo's face. Natalie sat Neo down on the couch while she stood facing him. 

"What is this all about?" Neo looked right at Trinity as he spoke. Trinity only stared at Natalie. Natalie grabbed Neo by the chin to make him look at her. 

"I am supposed to tell you this. She told me to tell you this." 

"Who told you?" 

"I believe you call her the Oracle." Neo bristled at that. Meeting the Oracle had started the long spiral of this nightmare that was his existence. He couldn't hold anything against the Oracle herself, but the mention of her name evoked unpleasant memories. He scanned the girl's features. He did recognize her. She had been at the Oracle's apartment; she had been one of the kids that the woman at the door had called 'potentials'. 

"What do you have to tell me?" Neo tried to suspend his emotions so he could think clearly about the situation. He had to concentrate to hear Natalie's next words. 

"You are the One." 

***********************************************************************

Lloyd was a wreck. Thalia had taken off...again. Everything was supposed to have been fixed. Agent Smith had promised him that the stalker had been taken care of, but Lloyd remained skeptical. The G-man's earlier suggestion that Thalia might be involved with this Anderson person was weighing heavily on his mind. Her disappearance only served to give more justification to that theory. _Anderson_. That name kept whispering across his thoughts. It seemed familiar...maybe he had heard it on the news? 

But it wasn't the possible criminal behaviors that set off alarms in Lloyd's head. Anderson was after his wife, and it might turn out that he wouldn't have to chase her too hard. Lloyd flipped that bitter thought over and over in his mind. To keep from going crazy, he tried to do some housework. He started by cleaning the dishes in the sink. Thalia hadn't been home for hours, and with each passing minute, the obvious became clearer to Lloyd. 

She had left him...probably for this Anderson guy. Before he knew it, he was throwing plates and cups and silverware all around. The plates cracked, the glasses shattered, and the silverware made clanging noises as they landed. None of the destruction satiated Lloyd's rage. The doorbell chime rang out its musical tune. Lloyd seriously debated not answering it. If it was Thalia, he'd overreact, maybe get violent. If it wasn't, he might attack whoever it was out of rage anyway. He dried his hands and went to answer the door. 

"Hello again, Mr. Reagan."

***********************************************************************

"What? No, no, I know what you're trying to do, uh, Natalie, is it? Look, you don't have to humor me. I know the truth already. The Oracle told me." Neo shook his head. He didn't appear upset, only sorry for the girl he believed to be deluded. Natalie looked at Trinity for help. Trinity sat next to Neo and placed her hand over his. 

"Neo, she's right. It's the only thing that makes any kind of logical sense. You have to be the One." Neo regarded Trinity with a look that was nothing short of amazement. He seemed to be searching for a way to avoid believing. 

"Did you tell her? Did you tell her what happened?" 

"She knew; she knew everything. About Morpheus, me, everything." Trinity gave Natalie a slight smile of support. 

"But what about me? Did you tell her about what happened to me?" Trinity dropped her gaze to her lap. She hadn't told Natalie about Neo dying. Natalie reached over to shake Trinity's sleeve. 

"Tell me what?" Trinity looked up at Natalie with tears threatening to pour from the corners of her eyes. She tried to bite back on the tears; it wasn't a reflex of her own, it was Thalia's, and she wasn't Thalia anymore. No, that wasn't true, she couldn't lie to herself. She was both women now; she was an amalgamation of both their lives, strengths, and weaknesses. Natalie kept staring at her, still wanting answers. Neo sighed and spoke softly. 

"Natalie, I am dead."

***********************************************************************

"So, Mr. Reagan, that is as much as we know. I am sorry about this sad situation. I wish there was something else I could do." Agent Smith regarded Lloyd with all the compassion of a rock. He didn't care a bit about this pitiful human. He had initiated this deal, including the woman as a perk in return for services rendered. So what if he didn't remember making the deal? That was a part of the deal anyway. 

"I can't believe this is happening to me." Lloyd couldn't speak much more than those few words. He was too conflicted to know what to think or say. Despair threatened to cave in the walls of his heart; rage boiled in his bloodstream; confusion reigned supreme over his thoughts. 

"I know this is hard, Mr. Reagan, but remember what I said earlier: we need your help, now more than ever. It must be terribly hard, but we need you to think cohesively so we can apprehend this criminal. If you help us, I may be able to persuade my higher authority to be lenient towards your wife, and I can guarantee that this story will never reach the papers." Agent Smith knew exactly which buttons to push. Lloyd had asked for a career as an actor, not because he liked to act, or because he was especially good at it, but because he like having attention lavished upon him...provided it was positive attention. He's give anything to keep this scandal from erupting. 

"What can I do?" Lloyd had no idea how he could do anything to fix this problem. Thalia wouldn't come home again, and even if she did, she wouldn't have anything to do with him. She had made that clear when she had left him. 

"We believe your wife may return here, and that she and her partner may wish to harm you, Mr. Reagan. I suggest you protect yourself, by any means necessary," Agent Smith reached into his coat while he planted the seed in Lloyd's mind. He brought out a .45 and handed it Lloyd. Dependable human jealousy would take care of the whole mess. This human would kill the woman, and without her, Anderson would be unable to preach his story to anyone. They would find a way to exterminate him, and then Smith could stop being, could stop fighting this stupid war against inferior opponents.

***********************************************************************

"What do you mean, dead?" For a psychic, Natalie was having an unusual amount of difficulty grasping Neo's point. 

"Just what I said." Trinity heard his voice waver slightly. "Natalie, Cypher killed me. He pulled the plug in the real world. I shouldn't even be here." Natalie gave him a funny look and then started giggling. "What?" 

"Oh, is that all? Sheesh, I thought it was serious." Neo and Trinity exchanged incredulous looks with one another before turning their confused faces to look at Natalie, who was still giggling. 

"Natalie, it is serious. Neo's body is dead. He can't leave the Matrix." "Forget just leaving, I'm stuck here permanently. The agents can't erase me, and if they can't, no one can." 

"That doesn't mean you're not the One," Natalie wagged her finger at Neo. He sat there with a stunned look on his face. It took him a few minutes before he could answer her. 

"Yes, it does, Nat. I can't help anyone if I'm dead. I can't help everyone realize the truth like this." 

"Why not?" 

"Well think about it. How can I wake anyone up, hell, how can I wake myself up if I don't exist outside the Matrix? Even if I could wake everyone up, I can't destroy the Matrix if I'm a part of it." 

"You're wrong. The only way to destroy the Matrix is to take it down from the inside." 

***********************************************************************

Lloyd paced around the house. Every few minutes, he stole a glance over at the gun sitting on the coffee table. It would be so easy; just find Thalia, and one bullet later... No. He couldn't do it. He loved her, despite her betrayal. And who said she had betrayed him at all? _She did, you dummy,_ a voice chimed in_. She and that guy, Anderson, they've been together, and you know it. _

"Shut up!" Lloyd shouted over the accusations. If he surrendered to that jealousy, murder would be the result. Still, he listened to the voice, his own rage, pain, and envy balled into one thought that was the clearest thought he'd had in a long while. 

_She's left you for this guy. She is insulting you. She'd rather be with some criminal than be with you. She's not just his partner, and you know it. You know everything. She's been doing this guy, too. Behind your back. Remember how she came home? She was passed out, but the first thing she wanted to know is where this asshole was. She wouldn't let you touch her; she has avoided sleeping with you. She doesn't want you, Lloyd._

"SHUT UP!!!" Lloyd grabbed the .45 off the table and bolted out the door, destination unknown.

***********************************************************************

"Listen, Nat, I don't want to argue this point. It isn't important right now. What's important is getting both of you out in the real world." Trinity raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms with doubt. 

"Why is that more important? Neo, you can't ignore what she's saying. She is right, you know." 

"Look, I promise, I won't ignore it, but right now you are both in danger. The agents aren't stupid. By now, they've realized that you know everything. They know I'll have told you the truth, and since they can't kill me, they'll go after you with everything they can throw at you. The only way to make it out is to wake you up. But I don't want you stuck without anyone on the outside with you, so that's why we have to wake Natalie too." 

"He's right, Trinity." Natalie squeezed Trinity's hand and looked at Neo. "How will she find me?" 

"Here," Trinity walked over to the cluster of desks and opened one of the drawers. She pulled out a silver pillbox. Neo swallowed hard at the sight of that object. It was Morpheus', it had to be. Trinity removed a red capsule from the box and handed it to Natalie. "As soon as I can locate a tracer, I'll come get you. You'll have to hang on until then. Can you?" Natalie nodded and swallowed the pill. Trinity turned to face Neo. "That's taken care of, now, tell me, how do we wake up without an outside signal?"

***********************************************************************

Lloyd looked up. He had no idea where he was, but night was descending over the sky. He should have started back, but a whisper of recognition kept him walking forward until he stood in front of an old section of the city. Right in front of him had to be the oldest building he had ever seen. There was a light on several floors up. The few shadows cast by the light looked human. He ducked behind a car when someone approached the window. Though the lighting was poor, and he was, in all reality, too far to tell for sure, he recognized the face at the window. 

"Thalia."

***********************************************************************

"I'm not sure exactly, but I figure we can make it work with some of this equipment." Neo fiddled with dials while Trinity looked out the window. Natalie glanced between them both. 

"Neo?" 

"Yeah, Nat?" 

"This would be a good time to talk about what I told you." Neo rolled his eyes, sighing. 

"Nat, I said we'd talk, but..." 

"No, just listen, please?" Trinity turned away from the window as Neo nodded for Natalie to continue. "The One can do it. He did it before, the Oracle told me. He woke everyone up for the first time...after he woke himself up. You are the One, Neo, and you can do it too." Neo looked away sharply. Trinity regarded him with a curious look. He actually appeared to be pondering the possibility. If it would help for him to be the One, Neo looked like he would consider it. 

_Excellent._

Neo shifted his eyes from the floor to Natalie to Trinity and back to Natalie. He wore such a stupid looking grin that Trinity nearly laughed out loud. 

"Okay, you've sold me. How do I do it?"

***********************************************************************

Lloyd crept up the stairs. They were old and probably creaky, but he managed to ascend without any especially loud noises. He could hear the voices of three people over his own footsteps and he followed the noise of their conversation. He recognized Thalia's voice, but just barely. Her voice had changed somehow. It was sterner and more direct. He nearly broke into the room when he heard Anderson's voice. He didn't recognize it distinctly, but he assumed the only male voice would be his. The third person sounded young, a girl perhaps. Lloyd stopped just outside the door connected to the hallway. He peeked through a crack in the door to get a glimpse at the room. It was empty, so he eased into it and over to the door leading to the next room. Unconsciously, he slipped the .45 out of his pocket and clicked the safety off. He waited for his moment. 

"Okay, you've sold me. How do I do it?" That was Anderson. 

"I don't know exactly, but it'll come to you." The girl was talking. 

"You can do it, Neo. You'll figure it out, and we'll all get out of here." Thalia's voice was the trigger. Lloyd barreled into the door, weapon drawn. 

"No one is going anywhere."

***********************************************************************

**PART 7: Finale**

***********************************************************************

Neo and Natalie stared at Lloyd, but Thalia actually spoke. 

"What the hell are you doing here, Lloyd?" Her words were daggers, puncturing Lloyd's already deflating sanity. Lloyd looked stricken. He raised the .45 and pointed it at her. Neo twitched a bit, making Lloyd jump and retrain his weapon on Neo. 

"You! You're responsible for this!" Lloyd's cries were piercing, but Neo remained calm. If anything, Neo was growing more furious at the intrusion. His eyes were narrow slits burning with hatred. Here was his murderer, the man who had condemned him to a life of a ghost, and this man was now in a position to ruin everything he had worked so hard to fix. 

"I'm responsible? For what?" Neo's placid tone belied his fury. Trinity shivered; his tone was so relaxed as to be unnerving. 

"For Thalia leaving me, what else, you asshole!" Lloyd's finger tightened on the trigger. 

"She wouldn't have had to, if it weren't for you." Neo's voice held menacing shadows, and even Lloyd shuddered inside. Natalie and Trinity remained outside the stalemate, but neither tried to move, lest they attract the business end of the .45 Lloyd currently had pointed at Neo. Right now, it was safest for the gun to be pointed at him. 

"What the hell are you talking about?" 

"You're the one who's responsible...Cypher." Lloyd's arm wavered at Neo's last word. In the split second he dropped his guard, Neo was off of the couch and on the attack. One elbow to the gut and a sweep of the legs later, and Lloyd was rolling on the floor gasping for air. He recovered and sat up to look straight up at the nose of the .45, now in Neo's hands. 

"You bastard! You fucking murderer! YOU DID IT!!! IT'S YOUR GODDAMNED FAULT!!!" Neo had abandoned all serenity; he was ready to kill. Lloyd looked pathetic attempting humility. 

"What? What are you talking about?" 

"You killed me! You fucking murdered me, you son of a bitch! And now it's my turn." Trinity watched the entire scene silently. Lloyd turned to her, and she knew she was lost. 

"Don't, Neo, please?" 

**********************************************************************

"We have their location." Agent Brown turned to Agent Smith as he reported. Smith nodded. He began the process of switching avatars... 

***********************************************************************

"What!?!" Neo couldn't believe his ears. This couldn't be Trinity. She would have killed Cypher herself, he knew it. This had to be because of Thalia. "Trinity, this has to be done. He's earned it. You can't let him get away with it." 

"I know, but I can't just ignore these memories, Neo. He didn't do anything. Cypher killed everyone, but he's not Cypher any more. Just leave him. Letting him live is a worse punishment than death." Neo grimaced and squeezed in the pain and anger, visibly struggling to combat his desire for revenge. He sneered at Lloyd, but he didn't kill him. He took the .45 by the barrel and viciously struck Lloyd across the face with the butt of the gun. Lloyd passed out. Just as his form was collapsing to the floor, it began to shift. In another second, Lloyd's features melted away to reveal Agent Smith lying in his place. 

"Hello, Mr. Anderson." 

***********************************************************************

Natalie watched the entire scene unfold in silence. She didn't fear death, so she didn't fear this man with the gun. What she was afraid of was an agent taking his place, and unfortunately, her fears came true. The memories of how agents had ripped the others apart, while she watched from the crack in the cabinet, all of them were pressing on her young mind. She started to whimper and hid under one of the desks. Maybe the agent would leave her alone again, but even if he didn't, she didn't want to watch him kill anyone else.

***********************************************************************

Neo held his hands up. He rolled his eyes. He wasn't scared of this agent, but his appearance was more of annoyance than he needed right now. Agent Smith stood and pulled his own weapon from his jacket. 

"What are you going to do with that? Redecorate? You can't hurt me, and you know it." 

"I have no intention of hurting you, at this time, Mr. Anderson." Agent Smith turned swiftly and fired at Trinity before Neo could react. Neo squeezed the trigger on his own weapon and managed to hit Agent Smith in the temple before the agent could evade the bullet. Smith leapt backwards, falling and evacuating Lloyd's body as it fell. Neo stared down at Lloyd's still figure for a second before turning to check on Trinity. She had fallen in a heap about a foot from where she had just been standing. 

"Trinity!" Neo stumbled over Lloyd to get to her. He turned her over. She had been shot in the chest. The blood seeped through the wound, turning her white T-shirt an ugly maroon. "Trinity, look at me. Look at me! Open you eyes!" Trinity's lids fluttered and opened slightly. She looked up at him. 

"You're going to have to find someone else to help you, Neo..." she wheezed. Neo held her close to him, crying tears he didn't know he could have. 

"No, no, you have to live! I _need_ you, Trinity." Trinity coughed and gave a gurgled laugh. She reached to stroke his face. She used every ounce of strength she could muster to speak in whispers. 

"Neo, I need to tell you this, please listen." Neo nodded. "You are the One, Neo. You have to believe it because it's true. The Oracle told me it was." Neo's lips formed the question she didn't give him a chance to say. "I know it's true. Remember when you asked me if I had gone to her, and I said that I had?" Neo nodded again but kept his eyes locked with Trinity's. "I never told you what she told me." Trinity smiled. "She told me I would fall for the One...fall in love..." she coughed and more blood wetted her lips. Neo wiped it away with his sleeve. "I love you, Neo. I did before, and I do now." She closed her eyes and her breathing became more labored. When she opened her eyes again, he was smiling at her. 

"You should have told me," he whispered. Trinity dropped her hand; it was too difficult to keep it up. Neo took her hand and held it. Trinity smiled over the pain. 

"Aren't you at least going to kiss me before I die?" Neo nodded but he hesitated. 

"I don't want you to die. I'm sorry, Trinity." He leaned over and kissed her. Her lips had taste. Neo was too emotional to notice that he could actually taste her blood and tears. He kept his eyes closed tight. He didn't want to open them; he couldn't see her dead. He stayed there, kissing her, keeping his eyes shut and praying she'd be all right when he opened them.

***********************************************************************

Natalie heard the two shots. She heard Neo call out Trinity's name after she heard two loud thuds. She waited, listening to hear what was going on. Neo's trembling voice and Trinity's pained one were bare whispers. She couldn't hear the words, but she could tell when they had stopped talking. She didn't hear the agent's voice, so she crawled out of her hiding spot. Lloyd's body was on the floor next to the .45 Neo had dropped. He was dead. Over in the corner, Neo sat, by himself, eyes closed, crying. 

"Neo? Neo, are you okay?" Neo couldn't process the question. His mind wasn't focused on anything, save for trying to block out the pain of losing Trinity. She would be gone when he opened his eyes, she would be dead, and he would be alone. Natalie came up and shook his shoulder gently. "Neo, what happened? Where did Trinity go?" Natalie's voice was a ray of light through the morose black melancholy that was his mind. _Open your eyes,_ he told himself, _open them, now. Something isn't right. Open your eyes_. Some of the tension in his eyelids disappeared, but he still did not look. 

"Open your eyes, Neo. It's okay," Natalie sounded relieved. Curiosity and hope forced his eyelids apart. He looked straight into Natalie's eyes, tears still at the corner of his own. He let out a shaky breath and let his eyes move to the floor. His arms were empty. Trinity was gone. He stared, agape, at the spot where she had just lain dying. His arms were still covered in her blood. 

"Where is she?" He looked back at Natalie. She was smiling. 

"She got out." Neo's hands started to shake. Natalie hugged him. "She'll live, if she made it out before she died." Neo pulled away and stared at Natalie. 

"How? How'd she get out?" Natalie smiled wider and pointed her finger squarely at his chest. 

"You did it, silly! I told you, you could do it!" Neo was speechless for a moment before they both began laughing and hugging. Natalie was right. Trinity had gotten out, and he had gotten her out. Natalie wagged her finger at him after they calmed down. "I told you so!"

***********************************************************************

She opened her eyes to the most gruesome of sights. She was back in a tub; she was another living battery again. For a moment, she was confused. She had been sure she was going to die. The only thing that could have saved her was an exit. If she had gotten out of the Matrix before she died, the wound wouldn't kill her. It would hurt, but all her organs would be fine, she would be fine. Then she had gotten out? How? She didn't try to escape the pod she was in until she could explain it. She had asked Neo to kiss her, and he had, and then what? She had ended up back in the real world. The only way for that to have happened... 

Neo was the One. He woke her up. It was true, all of it. Being awake was the final proof he was the One. With that encouraging thought fueling her weakened muscles, Trinity broke through the sealing on her pod. She had just pulled out the tubes from her throat when a passing machine checked in on her. It scanned her quickly and then pulled the line from the back of her head. The rest of the tubes fell away after that. She fell through the tunnel attached to the pod. One short ride later and she had pulled herself up on the side of the pool that held the run off from all the pods in her sector.

She shivered uncontrollably, from cold and adrenaline. She had to find some clothes soon or she would freeze to death. She got up and walked as far as her shaky legs would take her. Having been free once before, she was in decent shape, but months of inactivity had worn away a fair portion of her endurance. She only made it about a thousand feet before having to stop. There was a light ahead. She picked herself up and hobbled over to it. She rounded a corner and saw the source of the light. 

"Thank God almighty," she whispered. A ship. A working ship was emitting that light. Two people sitting in the forward bridge saw her through the window. One ran into the back of the ship while the other started to work the controls, and slowly the ship approached her. A line was sent down, and Trinity took hold of it. She was safe.

***********************************************************************

"The agents will be coming soon, you know they know where we are." Natalie had barely spoken when the sounds of sirens approaching whined over the still air. Neo looked up at the noise. He headed for the window. The twirling red lights of cop cars were about a mile away. Natalie stayed where she was while Neo paced the room. 

"Nat, I don't know how to get you out. I don't know how I did it for Trinity, but I can try to do it again." Neo walked back over to her. 

"I'll help you, Neo. Sit," Natalie patted the ground in front of her. Neo sat as she reached out to take his hands. "Now concentrate. Close your eyes and see..." 

He saw. The black background was abuzz with the activity of a billion lines of green code running all over it. The Matrix in its purest form, and he could see it. He saw the lines that made the room what it was, the lines that were both his own and Natalie's RSIs and the lines of code that were the approaching agents and cops. Natalie's voice came through as code, too. 

"I know you see it, Neo. You can make it whatever you want. You know the code for an exit, now find and make one." He concentrated. The correct sequence for a hardline was easy to come up with. He could picture the data, now what? "You have it, now just put it in this room and activate it. I'll pick it up." Neo looked at the lines of code that made the room what it was. He 'saw' the codes that denoted the empty couch and focused on that couch. He pulled the data on an exit and pasted it in between the code that separated the couch cushions from the empty space above it. He kept the code permanently placed there by sheer will, and soon, he didn't have to work on keeping it there. The exit stuck. The new phone on the couch started to ring. 

"Phone's for you, Nat. Pick it up and go," Neo kept his eyes shut. Natalie dropped his hands and went to pick it up. Neo opened his eyes in time to see her RSI fade into oblivion. Not ten seconds later, the door on the first floor was kicked in as the cops rushed to secure the building. The agents went first. They directed the police to the exact door without difficulty. They walked right through the open door to find Neo still sitting on the floor. 

"Glad you could join the party." Neo smiled at Agent Smith. The agents would have drawn their weapons if they had thought it would do anything, and if the entire S.W.A.T. team hadn't rushed in after them. 

"Freeze! Put your hands up! You're surrounded!" Neo did as he was asked, never losing his grin. Two officers moved in to handcuff him. He didn't fight them, but every time they tried to put the cuffs around his wrist they went right through his wrists. Neo refused to solidify in any way so they would stay on. 

"What the hell is going on?" The two officers backed away slowly, leaving the cuffs with Neo, which promptly fell to floor. Neo bent to pick them up. Several weapons shifted position as cries of "Stop right there!" met his every move. He ignored them and continued on to pick up the cuffs and stand upright again. He held them up for the cops to see. 

"Like this, right?" He snapped the cuffs on correctly and even jerked his wrists apart to prove they were on. Several of the other officers snickered, and the two that had tried to handcuff him were red with embarrassment. 

"Let's go, Mr. Anderson." Agent Smith's level voice held an unusual amount of anger. This human was tricky and dangerous, not to mention invulnerable. He supposed he should be 'happy' that Anderson was cooperating. Agents Brown and Jones escorted Neo from the room while Agent Smith stayed behind. He looked down at Lloyd's stiff form. "Hello again, Mr. Reagan." He walked around Lloyd and looked for Trinity's body. It wasn't there. Smith couldn't understand it. He had been killed right after shooting the woman, but he had seen her fall. She had taken the bullet, so where was her body? 

***********************************************************************

"There, right there. That's her." Trinity pointed out Natalie's helpless form floating on the surface of the water. The cable extended out to pick her up. Trinity ran to meet Natalie as they pulled her up. She looked very well compared to most others. She recognized Trinity. 

"He did it. He knows now." Trinity picked her up and carried her over to the table over the protests of the other two crewmembers. 

"I've got her."

***********************************************************************

"Well, Mr. Anderson, it seems that you're stuck with us again." Agent Smith glowered at Neo. Neo could only smile. He held up his still handcuffed wrists. 

"Yeah, I guess you caught me, G-man. You expect me to talk?" He laughed at his own horrible mobster impression. 

"You can stop that charade, Mr. Anderson." Neo laughed again and slid his wrists through the metal of the handcuffs. "That's better. I suggest you consider the seriousness of this situation, Mr. Anderson. You are not so invincible as you might think. Sooner or later, we will find a way to correct you still being here. We will find a way to erase you sooner or later." 

"I don't think so, but knock yourself out. Have a great time at my expense, I'm good for it." Neo kept his smile. Agent Smith felt his limits being tested. He didn't want to let this human see how he could be aggravated. If it were possible, Smith felt self- conscious; he couldn't let Neo see how tainted by human emotion he really was. 

"You are alone now, Mr. Anderson. So, perhaps you would care to explain how you think you are going to continue being a nuisance without anyone to believe your story?" Agent Smith sat on the chair at the table. Neo got up from the cot he'd been lying on and went over to Smith. He leapt up on the table and sat cross-legged, facing Smith. The agent had to take a moment to overcome what might have been called surprise. 

"Well, let me see, what am I going to do now that I'm alone, he asks? Well, chief, I'm not quite sure yet, but for starters, I think I'm going to get rid of you and your pals out in the hall there." 

"And how do you propose to do that? I feel obligated to remind you that there is no way to permanently destroy a sentient program. Only humans are so easily removed." 

"That so? Then how come you can't remove me?" 

Agent Smith did not answer.

***********************************************************************

Trinity rubbed her eyes. Natalie's muscle structure was much easier to repair as a result of her age. She couldn't be any older than ten, so her muscles hadn't been inactive as long. Still, the reparations took time. She'd been working on repairing the damage for the past six hours, and she wouldn't rest until it was finished. 

"Are you sure you don't want any help, miss?" Trinity looked up. It was the younger of the two men who had rescued her and helped her find Natalie. His name was Tripps. He looked over her work and nodded in approval. "You really should let us help. You've only just got out yourself. You need rest." Trinity gave him a reassuring smile. 

"I'm all right. She's nearly done, don't worry. Thanks for all you help. I don't know how I would have made it without you." Trinity went back to her work, and Tripps watched from a short distance. She tried to think of something else to say to him. "How did you guys survive? I thought everyone was a goner when Zion was destroyed." 

"You heard about that?" 

"Yeah, you could say I did. I found out the hard way, unfortunately. What happened? What can you tell me?"

"The agents destroyed the mainframe, and after that, it was only a matter of time before the rest of city fell. We lost about fifty people when their links to the Matrix were shut down. We were outside the city at the time, so we managed to survive. Our best estimates are that maybe ten other ships are out there somewhere. We have only pinpointed seven of twenty ships we know that are still functioning, and all of those seven are dead in the water, so to speak." 

"Zion? What about the people there?" Tripps shook his head. 

"We've been through there once, and it ain't pretty. You don't want to see it. If anyone is alive down there, which I doubt, they aren't in any kind of shape to send any signals. I figure a fatality rating of maybe ninety-seven percent." Trinity bowed her head. 

"I knew it would be bad, but that bad?" 

"Yeah, they had no warning. No one knows how the agents cracked the codes to the computer." Trinity bit her lip. _I do_, she thought. She had to tell him. 

"I believe I have a pretty good idea."

***********************************************************************

"This is getting tiresome, Mr. Anderson. We are at an impasse. You cannot hurt me, and we are unable to get rid of you. I do not know what your intentions are, but I can assure you, you are quite alone in this crusade." Neo rolled off the table onto his feet, laughing the whole way. He knew he was annoying Smith and that was his only intention at the moment. 

"So, tell me then, why bother detaining me? Why not just let me go? You said it yourself, you're going to find a way to erase me. So why bother worrying about what I do?" 

"Mr. Anderson, you know the answer to that question already, and I do not feel it is necessary that I..." Neo slapped the table to cut Agent Smith off. 

"That's right, you can't afford to have me out there, can you? What if, by chance, I convinced more people and found a way to free them? Now you can't let that happen, can you?" Neo walked away. 

"Mr. Anderson, you are alone and at a disadvantage. Zion and all its inhabitants have been destroyed, and those humans who survive elsewhere will be eliminated. This war will be over long before anyone even knows there was a war." 

"I think not. I'm betting that we can win this war...or at least keep it going for a long, long, long time." Neo grinned right in Agent Smith's face. He had touched on Smith's most sensitive hidden desire. 

"Wouldn't you just love that, Smithy-boy? We'd get to be real close..." 

"That won't happen, Mr. Anderson. We will not allow this pointless rebellion of yours to continue any longer." 

"I don't think you'll have any say in the matter. But then, it doesn't matter to you, does it? It doesn't matter who wins." 

"Why do you say that, Mr. Anderson?" 

"I can see right through you, you idiot. All you want is for this to be over." Neo leaned in closer to Agent Smith. Smith backed away. Neo laughed and leaned back. "That's something else I've noticed about you, Mr. Agent Smith. You are all too human for your own good." 

Agent Smith had no answer.

***********************************************************************

Natalie slept soundly in Trinity's lap. She had finished with Natalie only an hour earlier. Natalie had woken up and climbed into Trinity's arms. Trinity carried her into the room that Tripps had prepared for her. After about twenty minutes, Trinity slid out from under Natalie, tucked her in, and left the room. Tripps was in the mess hall when she entered. 

"Hey there, how's the kid?" Tripps got up to fix her a bowl of food. She sat down on the bench. 

"She's sleeping." 

"So, you're the famous Trinity, huh? I've heard a lot about you. I'm surprised you made it. That was some story you had. Did you tell the captain?" Trinity nodded. 

"How'd you get out? I thought the reports said all of Morpheus' crew was eliminated." 

"We were, mostly. We were set up by one of our crew." "Traitor?" "Uh-huh. He kept me alive as some kind of trophy." 

"What? What a sick freak. I hope he got his before you got out." Trinity nodded. Lloyd's death didn't disturb her so much anymore. If she had let Neo kill him in the first place, she wouldn't have come so close to death herself. Neo...she missed him. She only realized how much now that she was in the real world. What was he doing?

***********************************************************************

The agents watched Neo exit the building. They had given up trying to stop him. He had willingly gone back to the cell twice, for no other reason than amusement. He enjoyed bothering the agents, especially Smith. Until they found a fail-proof means to hold him, there was no point trying. Agent Smith felt nervous. He had given up being amazed at these emotions he kept having. All he could think of was getting rid of Anderson. While the other agents continued working, Agent Smith followed Neo. 

At first, Neo just wandered without direction, but eventually he wound his way back to the building where he had been arrested. He was aware that Smith was behind him. He had been counting on it. Neo went to the top floor, bypassing the rooms where all the machinery had been. He alighted to the roof and waited for Smith to do the same. Smith had no qualms about pursuing Neo all the way to the roof. Neo sat there waiting for him. 

"I figured you wouldn't just let me go. Too bad." 

"Why? Maybe I've come to actually kill your girlfriend. I missed her last time, I won't again." Neo paled. He hadn't realized that Smith knew that. 

"You bastard!" Neo charged at Smith. The fight was on. 

***********************************************************************

"Something's up!" Trinity raced over to where Tripps sat watching the Matrix. Trinity recognized the signature in the codes. 

"Neo." 

"What the hell is that guy doing? An agent will tear him apart!" 

"No, you're wrong. It's the agent who doesn't have a prayer." 

***********************************************************************

Agent Smith couldn't believe it. Anderson was faster than he was. His reflexes were uncanny. Smith couldn't land any of his punches. Neo fought with all the fury he felt. The mere idea of this computer program killing Trinity drove him on. The memory of her nearly dying before at this same program's hands only enraged him further. With each punch or jab, he saw the face of a friend that had died because of an agent's meddling or conniving. Morpheus, Apoc, Switch, Mouse, Tank, Dozer, the Oracle...himself. 

In the midst of his swirling emotions, the picture of the world around him disappeared. Soon, only the codes existed. Neo knocked Agent Smith away and then stopped. He could see the agent's program, written in code. He had manipulated the code once before... Agent Smith was still where he had fallen. Anderson wasn't fighting; he wasn't even looking at Smith. Suddenly, he was frozen. He couldn't move or switch bodies. Somehow, Anderson was doing this. The Matrix was sending the equivalent of panicked signals to him, ordering him to leave. Smith stayed mute and still. 

Neo opened his eyes. It had worked. Smith was stuck in place, and his code, his existence remained on Neo's whim alone. Neo walked over to Agent Smith and stood directly in his line of sight. 

"You said I couldn't destroy you. You lied." Neo cut Agent Smith's code out of the Matrix. The agent evaporated, leaving a teenaged boy's body in his place.

***********************************************************************

"He did it." Trinity whispered under her breath. Tripps stared at the monitor. 

"How?" Trinity turned, a smile spreading on her lips. 

"Did you ever hear about the One?" 

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**EPILOG**

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"Are you sure it's a good idea to be going in this soon?" Tripps was standing by the chair. His only other crewmember, Jolz, was setting up an entrance. Trinity patted Tripps on the back to reassure him. 

"It's been a week. That's too long, not too soon." She secured herself in the chair. Tripps finished the rest of the setup. Natalie watched from her own chair. She wasn't going in with Trinity, but she wanted to watch Trinity go in. 

"You'll be careful, right?" Natalie sounded worried. That was not a good sign, considering Natalie's prescience. 

"Why, is something going to go wrong?" Trinity teased. 

"No, but it doesn't hurt to be careful. It has been a week, and you still haven't gone in. Maybe you've gotten rusty." Trinity raised an eyebrow, making Natalie giggle. "Well, at least you let them fix you, too, before you decided to do this." Trinity smiled. 

"They wouldn't let me go in otherwise." 

"Everything's set. Jolz, you ready?" Jolz answered in the affirmative, and Tripps looked to Trinity for confirmation. Trinity was looking at Natalie. 

"You had better go. He misses you." With that send off, Trinity closed her eyes, ready to wake up inside.

***********************************************************************

She appeared inside a subway station. Save for one homeless man, obviously passed out due to emptying the contents of the vodka bottle he was clutching, she was alone. This station had ominous secrecy. Trinity ran her fingers along the wall. She stopped to touch one of the pillars. Something wasn't right about this place. It was haunted, that was as best as she could explain it. It was as if ghosts of a reality that never existed still roamed the subway. She walked to the stairs but stopped short of leaving. Unbelievable, she giggled to herself; she was concerned about how she looked. A quick check of her outfit met with her approval. Her usual black vinyl was spotless. She smiled and took the handrail. 

_*****Run, Neo, run.*****_

She turned around. That voice had been her own, whispering through the subway station with all the rest of the ghosts. She turned around. If she closed her eyes, a picture was there. It was a fight, and the two combatants were top-notch. The vision had all the feeling of the ghosts she had noticed earlier. Despite her previous adventures with memory loss, Trinity was certain that this fight had never taken place. It should have, though, and that was the oddest part. It was the consequence of a reality that never was and could never be. Shaking off the ghosts as best she could, Trinity decided it was time to leave. Besides, between her two lives and the deaths of he friends, she had enough ghosts to haunt her for one lifetime. 

***********************************************************************

Neo was sitting on a park bench. He had actually taken the time to change for this occasion. Not to say that his clothes were any different, but they were clean. He happened to think that the black suit and shirt was flattering anyway. If he had to be caught indefinitely, there were worse outfits to be stuck in. He knew the exact minute Trinity stalked into the park. Although her clothes were a dead give away, he sensed her entrance long before he saw her. His breath caught in his throat as he watched her saunter over. This was the Trinity he remembered. The asphyxiatingly tight pants and shirt with matching trenchcoat and sunglasses were back. Every male within eyesight stopped what he was doing to watch her. Once, this kind of public appearance might have been dangerous. It still was to a certain extent but not so's he couldn't handle it. 

"Mind if I sit with you?" Neo grinned and shrugged. 

"If you're sure it won't split those pants if you do, why not?" Trinity sat as he turned to face her. She glanced around at all the pedestrians who were staring. She noted, with a hint of pleasure, all the envious looks from women who were obviously jealous. Neo couldn't help noticing the similar faces from all the men. They both started to laugh. 

"I think we should go someplace where we aren't giving everyone else an eyeful." Neo shook his head. 

"You call sitting on a bench an 'eyeful'? Where's your sense of adventure? I'll show you an eyeful." Hugging her tightly, he kissed her deeply. Sure enough, that was the eyeful that he had promised it would be. A few people shouted, some giggled, and one group of fraternity rejects started to clap and holler. 

"Way to go!" 

"Hey, do you want keys to my apartment?" 

Neo didn't hear any of them, and neither did Trinity. They sat for a while that way. By the time they broke off the kiss, anyone who had seen the start of it was gone. Trinity opened her eyes to see Neo smiling wickedly. 

"You do know we can't just goof off forever, right? We do have to save the world on occasion." Neo laughed and brushed some hair out of her eyes. 

"It can wait." As he kissed her again, Trinity couldn't help but agree. 

THE END


End file.
